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UNIVERSITY  ADDRESSES 


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UNIVERSITY  ADDRESSES 


BY 


WILLIAM   WATTS   FOLWELL 

Professor  Emeritus  University  of  Minnesota 


1  >      ' 


MINNEAPOLIS 
THE  H.  W.  WILSON  COMPANY 

1909 


COPYRIGHT 

BY 

WILLIAM  W.  FOLWELL 

1909 


To  THE  Memory  of 
Sibley 

AND 

Marshall 


241049 


Although  indulgent  friends  suggested  the 
publication  of  these  papers,  they  are  not  re- 
sponsible for  their  appearance. 

On  reviewing  them  after  the  lapse  of  a 
quarter  century,  it  seemed  to  the  author  that 
he  might  be  justified  in  putting  them  out,  be- 
cause they  illustrate  a  period  in  the  history  of 
the  university  in  which  he  has  spent  forty 
years  of  his  life ;  and  also  because  they  may 
revive  interest  in  a  problem  still  of  great  im- 
portance, that  of  the  organization  of  education. 

W.  W.  F. 

December,  1909. 


I.     Inaugural  Address,  1869 i 

11.     The  Minnesota  Plan,  1875 ']'/ 

III."    The  Secularization  of  Education, 

1881 143 

IV.     The  Civic  Education,  1884 185 


I.   INAUGURAL  ADDRESS 

According  to  existing  custom,  the  Territory  of 
:\Iinnesota,  created  March  3,  1849,  expected  a  grant 
of  public  lands  from  Congress  for  the  endowment 
of  a  university.  That  expectation  was  fulfilled  in 
1851,  and  the  territorial  legislature  of  that  year  by 
an  act  of  incorporation  created  the  University  of 
Minnesota,  to  be  located  at  or  near  the  falls  of  St. 
Anthony.  A  series  of  blunders  and  consequent  mis- 
fortunes postponed  its  actual  opening  till  after  the 
close  of  the  war  of  the  slaveholders'  rebellion.  A 
preparatory  school  was  organized  in  October,  1867. 
Two  years  later,  a  small  class  having  been  prepared 
for  college  work,  the  regents  elected  a  president 
and  faculty.  They  began  their  work  in  September, 
1869,  but  their  formal  inauguration  was  convenient- 
ly postponed  till  the  close  of  the  first  scholastic 
term.  On  December  22,  1869.  in  the  large  room  in 
the  third  story  of  the  west  wing  of  the  "old  main" 
building,  the  simple  but  impressive  ceremonies  took 
place. 

The  part  which  any  individtial  plays  in  to- 
day's ceremonies  is  a  small  thing.  These  pro- 
ceedings derive  their  importance  and  dignity 
from  the  occasion  of  them.  To-day  we  celebrate 
the  foundation  of  the  University.  ;7.s'  inaugura- 
tion, long  ago  an  assured  fact  with  those  whose 
labors,    sacrifices,    and    foresight    have    made    it 


2  UXR'ERSITY   ADDRESSES 

sure.  It  is  hope,  not  memory,  which  inspires 
our  hearts  and  dictates  our  utterances. 

We  are  gathered  to-day  in  no  historic  audi- 
ence-chamber ;  we  employ  no  ancient  symbols 
nor  formulae ;  no  effigies  upon  canvas  or  in 
marble  look  down  from  these  walls  to  remind  us 
of  the  great  and  good  of  olden  time,  whose  lives 
and  labors  have  reflected  a  glory  never  to  fade 
upon  a  venerable  Alma  ]\Iater:  but  looking  for- 
ward to  the  future,  amid  scenes  as  yet  unused  to 
academic  displays,  we  celebrate  and  emphasize, 
with  song  and  praise  and  benediction, — begin- 
nings. Ours  is  the  hopeful  toil  of  the  sower,  not 
the  consummate  fruition  of  the  harvest.  We  thank 
God  for  foundations  now  laid  here  which  may 
endure  to  the  end  of  the  world,  to  the  blessing 
and  upbuilding  of  all  the  generations  which  shall 
follow  ours.  We  may  therefore  rejoice  with  ex- 
ceeding great  joy  over  the  opportunities  which 
our  children,  and  our  children's  children  shall 
here  be  given,  of  learning  those  sciences  which 
furnish  and  adorn  manhood  and  womanhood,  and 
those  arts  which  enrich  and  emancipate  commu- 
nities, and  make  small  states  great. 

How  to  plan,  how  to  build,  how  to  adminis- 
ter the  University  so  as  to  meet  the  just  demands 
of  our  own  and  coming  times,  are  the  questions 
which  now  occupy  and  oppress  us.  It  would  be 
vain  for  me  to  attempt  to  divert  your  minds  this 
hour  from  the  occasion  of  this  assemblage  and 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS  3 

these  public  acts.     At  this  initial  moment  of  our 
enterprise,  it  is  clear  that  we  ought  rightly  to  ap- 
prehend its  proper  aim,  scope,  and  sphere.     Pro- 
posing to  build  here  aH  University,  we  ought  to 
be  agreed  both  as  to'  what  we  mean  by  that  term, 
and  what  we  do  not  mean.     Though   we  build 
■  for  the  future,  we  plan  from  the  past,  towards 
which  let  us  glance  before  we  attempt  definitions. 
It  has  often  been  charged  with  much  petulance 
against   the   older   American   colleges   that   they 
were  organized,  and  have  always  been  operated, 
in  the  interest  of  the  Church  and  the  clerical  pro- 
fession.    This  statement  is  no  doubt  true,  but  it 
is  far  from  being  a  just  cause  of  reproach.     Ec- 
clesiastics  organized   and    managed    with   heroic 
sacrifices  the  old  colleges,  because  they  alone,  as 
a  class,  appreciated  the  value  of  liberal  culture 
and  higher  education.     All  honor  to  the   noble 
men  who  planted  Harvard,  and  Yale,  and  Brown, 
and  Columbia,  and  Princeton,  and  Oberlin,  to  the 
glory  of  God  and  the  upbuilding  of  the  Church. 
Jjut  it  is  to  be  remarked  that  these  venerable 
institutions,  although  founded  as  training  schools 
for  the   ministry,   did   not   at   the   first   propose, 
never  have  undertaken,    and   do   not   now   ofifer 
to    furnish,    as    colleges,    theological    education 
proper.      They  were,  and  continue  to  be.  insti- 
tutions of  general  and  liberal  culture  in  science 
and  literature. 


4  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

In  the  course  of  the  forty  years  which  have  passed 
some  of  these  universities  have  greatly  multiplied 
and  expanded  their  professional  and  technical  cours- 
es. All  still  remain  in  a  sense  denominational,  but 
would   scorn  active   proselyting. 

The  college  graduate  of  colonial  times,  pre- 
paring for  clerical  functions,  passed  his  appren- 
ticeship in  the  study  and  under  the  tuition  of 
some  scholarly  parish  minister.  When  a  clergy- 
man, apt  to  teach,  assembled  two,  three,  or  more 
candidates  under  his  roof,  formed  them  into  a 
class,  and  taught  them  after  a  certain  scheme,  a 
beginning  was  made  which  developed  into  the 
theological  seminary.  The  economy  of  the  new 
plan,  upon  which  two  or  three  experts  could  in- 
struct a  number  of  candidates,  over  the  old  one 
which  required  as  many  masters  as  pupils,  was 
too  obvious  to  escape  the  notice  of  a  class  of 
thrifty,  practical  men,  accustomed  to  organize  and 
constitute. 

Long  after  the  establishment  of  the  theological 
seminary,  law^yers  and  physicians  continued  to 
acquire  their  professional  edtications  in  the  of- 
fices of  preceptors.  I  think  the  physicians  were 
the  next  in  order  to  discover  the  feasibility  and 
economy  of  the  professional  school.  So  rapidly 
were  the  needed  methods  and  appliances  invent- 
ed and  adopted,  that  not  a  single  generation 
elapsed  between  the  establishment  of  the  first 
medical   colleges,   and    the    time   when   they   ab- 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  5 

sorbed  all  candidates  for  the  medical  doctorate. 

The  law  schools  came  later,  for  of  all  pro- 
fessional men  the  lawyer  is  the  most  conserva- 
tive. "Ouieta  non  movere"  is  ever  his  watch- 
word and  motto.  It  is  within  the  recollection 
of  men  still  young:,  that  the  law  school  has  got 
on  to  solid  footing,  and  become  recognized  as  the 
necessary  and  indispensable  pathway  to  the  legal 
profession. 

By  this  time  the  secret  was  fairly  abroad.     It 
was  in  the  air.  and  began  to  infect  all  classes. 
The  modest  schoolmaster  caught   it.  and  began 
"with  'bated  breath  and  whispering  humbleness" 
to  ask  for  the  foundation  of  schools  in  which  he 
might  acquire  the  principles  and  processes  of  his 
craft,  before  beginning  the  practice  of  it  upon 
human  bodies  and   immortal   souls.     Be    it   said 
to  the  credit  of  our  age  and  country  that  this 
request  has  received  a  certain  though  feeble  re- 
sponse.    The  normal  school  now  sends  the  pri- 
mary teacher  to  his  work  with  some  knowledge 
of  what  is  to  be  done ;  but  the  high  school  teach- 
er, the  academy  or  seminary  teacher,  and  the  col- 
lege professor,    still  learn   their  business   in   the 
class    room.      A   very   accomplished   extempora- 
neous preacher,  being  asked  by  what  means  he 
acquired  his  skill,  replied,  "by  ruining  half  a  doz- 
en good  congregations."     Tt  is  painful  to  think 
how    manv    good    schools    are    either    ruined    or 


6  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

greatly  damaged  in  preparing  teachers  for  their 
work. 

The  speaker  over-estimated  the  number  of  com- 
mon school  teachers,  and  under-estimated  that  of 
grade  and  high  school  teachers  who  had  received 
normal  instruction.  In  1908  the  state  superintend- 
ent of  public  instruction  reports  the  whole  number 
of  common  school  teachers  in  Minnesota  as  9022; 
of  whom.  2267  have  attended  normal  schools,  936 
being  graduates.  The  number  of  grade  and  high 
school  teachers  is  5906;  of  whom  2853  have  attend- 
ed normal  schools,  and  2491  are  graduates. 

More  fortunate  than  the  teacher,  are  the  rail- 
way and  the  mining  engineer,  the  chemist,  and 
the  metallurgist,  who  step  at  once  from  our  poly- 
technic schools  into  honorable  and  lucrative  posi- 
tions ,  their  science  and  scientific  training  being 
found  to  more  than  compensate  for  any  tempo- 
rary lack  of  practical  dexterity. 

But  the  demand  for  technical  education  is  no 
longer  confined  to  those  subjects  and  classes  gen- 
erally spoken  of  as  "professional."  The  indus- 
trial and  commercial  classes  have  already  raised 
a  cry  which  can  neither  be  hushed  up  nor  ig- 
nored. x\s  a  very  remarkable  indication  of  this 
new  demand  I  would  point  to  that  great  array 
of  so-called  "Business  or  Commercial  Colleges," 
which  within  the  past  ten  years  have  flashed  up- 
on the  country  with  all  the  glory  of  gilt  sign- 
boards and   polychromatic  placards.     While,  as 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  7 

I  think,  there  is  large  room  for  criticism  upon 
the  methods  and  management  of  these  institu- 
tions, and  although  our  solid  business  men  are 
still  chary  of  their  countenance  and  support,  it  is 
certain  that  the  educator  can  no  longer  ignore 
these  schools ;  but  must  recognize  them,  as  signs 
of  the  times,  at  least,  clearly  foreshadowing  a 
serious,  organized  demand  on  the  part  of  the 
commercial  classes  for  technical  education.  So 
extensive  and  rapid  has  been  the  development  of 
our  foreign  and  inland  commerce,  and  so  com- 
plicated have  they  become  with  questions  of 
currency,  exchange,  and  the  customs  of  the 
trades,  that  the  accounts  of  great  houses  are 
thrown  unavoidably  into  the  hands  of  expert  ac- 
countants who  frequently  understand  their  condi- 
tion in  detail  better  than  the  proprietors.  It  is 
not  strange,  then,  that  the  young  men  ambitious 
to  occupy  positions  of  such  respectability  and  in- 
fluence, have  eagerly  grasped  at  the  first  means 
offered,  however  inadequate,  of  qualifying  them- 
selves in  advance  for  their  work.  But  my  pres- 
ent object  is  answered,  if  these  novel  institutions 
are  allowed  to  be  indicative  of  a  serious  call  for 
technical  education  on  the  part  of  the  commercial 
classes. 

Many  public  high  schools  have  in  the  last  j-ears 
opened  'commercial  courses'.  Some  universities 
have  expanded  their  departments  of  political  econo- 
my   to    embrace    studies    related    to    business.  A 


8  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

smaller  number  have  organized  'schools"  of  account- 
ing, commerce  and  the  like.  The  proposition  that 
the  public  schools  and  universities  should  'take  over' 
the  work  of  private  commercial  schools  and  colleges 
is  not   here   considered. 

Last  of  all,  a  large  body  moving  slowly,  but 
with  irresistible  momentum,  come  the  industrial 
classes,  the  toiling  millions  who  wring  from  the 
earth  and  her  products  the  subsistence  of  the 
race, — demanding  a  schoolmaster.  It  is  true 
that  the  cry  of  these  classes  for  more  light 
was  heard  long  ago  in  America ;  but  without 
eloquent  tongues  and  facile  pens  to  multiply  and 
re-echo  it,  it  was  lost  in  the  air, — 7'ox  et  prae- 
tcrea  nihil.  It  might  yet  be  sounding  unheeded, 
had  there  not  come  a  time  when  we  all  saw,  by 
the  light  of  war's  devouring  flames  how  the  sal- 
vation of  our  nation  lay  in  the  keeping  of  these 
hard-handed  working-men.  It  was  in  the  su- 
preme hour  of  the  nation's  peril,  when  its  very 
name  had  been  mentioned  by  a  foreign  prime 
minister  as  out  of  date,  when  the  ranks  of  the 
army,  lately  filled  from  the  flower  and  bloom  of 
our  farmers  and  artisans,  had  been  cut  down  and 
shortened  by  bloody  campaigns ;  when  the  call 
for  volunteers  was  beating  in  every  village  of  the 
land ;  it  was  then  that  the  American  Congress 
hastened  to  bestow  upon  the  industrial  classes  of 
the  country  that  magnificent  endowment  con- 
veyed by  the   Agricultural   College  Bill.   By  the 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  9 

passage  of  that  act,  the  demand  I  am  speaking  of 
was  recognized  and  recorded.  Since  that  time  no 
one  has  held  it  in  supposition,  but  as  one  to  be 
met  and  answered. 

Never  has  a  more  troublesome  problem  been 
thrust  upon  educators.  We  know  very  well  how 
to  take  young  men  and  train  them  in  schools  to 
be  clergymen,  physicians,  lawyers,  engineers,  ac- 
countants, chemists  and  miners,  but  we  cannot 
yet  so  deftly  produce  you  farmers  and  black- 
smiths and  carpenters ;  spinners,  dyers  and 
weavers ;  millers,  moulders  and  machinists,  and 
so  on. 

It  must  be  understood  that  this  new  demand 
is  an  immense  and  far-spreading  one.  and  one 
which  no  single  institution,  unless  it  be  vastly 
richer  than  any  yet  founded  in  America,  can  hope 
fully  to  meet.  Take  Agriculture  for  illustration. 
Agriculture  is  a  word  of  wide  comprehension  in- 
cluding a  great  variety  of  matters  which  together 
form  a  whole,  but  each  of  which  demands  a  spe- 
cial treatment.  Among  farmers  we  class  growers 
of  grains  and  grasses,  planters  of  textile  products, 
sugar  and  tobacco,  stock  growers,  dairymen,  mar- 
ket gardeners,  fruit  growers  and  tree  culturists, 
seed  growers  and  florists.  No  other  profession 
demands  so  wide  a  range  of  scientific  knowledge 
and  practical  manual  skill  as  does  agriculture. 
The  completely  furnished  agriculturist  must 
know  the  chemistry  of  earth,  air,  fire  and  water, 


10  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

the  structure  and  properties  of  plants,  the  natural 
history  of  domestic  animals,  and  the  principles  of 
breeding  and  raising  them,  and  the  cure  of  their 
diseases.  He  must  know  the  use  of  many  tools, 
and  be  able  to  test  them  upon  mechanical  prin- 
ciples. He  will  need  to  understand  several 
branches  of  manufacture.  He  ought  to  be  law- 
yer enough  to  keep  out  of  litigation.  He  would 
need  to  know  in  particular  the  law  of  contracts, 
of  highways  and  ditches,  of  tenures  and  of  ad- 
verse possession,  and  he  should  be  no  unskillful 
accountant. 

It  is  not  strange  then  that  the  schoolmaster 
has  been  staggered  by  the  huge  load  so  sudden- 
ly thrust  upon  him. 

The  problem  of  agricultural  education  is  one 
of  peculiar  difficulty  on  account  of  this  well 
known  and  much  lamented  fact,  that  while  farm- 
ers' sons  are  rushing  by  thousands  into  business, 
seeking  all  sorts  of  agencies,  and  clerkships, 
neither  farmers'  sons  nor  anybody's  sons  in  large 
numbers,  are  seeking  thorough  scientific  educa- 
tion in  agriculture.  I  am  informed  by  high  au- 
thority that  out  of  the  600  young  men  now  at- 
tending the  Cornell  University,  not  over  30  ex- 
pect to  become  practical  farmers.  I  fear  this 
state  of  things  must  long  continue.  So  long  as 
there  is  open  to  young  men  the  prospect  of  a 
name  and  a  home,  of  a  high  social  position  to  be 
won  with  clean  hands  and  unsoiled  garments  by 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  ii 

headwork,  and  without  capital,  the  learned  pro- 
fessions, so  called,  will  continue  to  absorb  the 
best  blood  of  the  country.  Fondness  for  me- 
chanical pursuits  and  indoor  work,  will  turn  many 
others  to  become  artisans,  who  likewise  need  but 
little  capital  to  start  upon.  It  must  be  confessed 
that  our  thoroughly  educated  young  Bachelor  of 
Agriculture,  with  all  his  zeal,  would  be  sadly  otY 
here  without  the  capital  sufficient  to  buy.  sub- 
due and  stock  his  farm.  In  fact  the  newly  ar- 
rived emigrant  with  his  few  and  simple  wants, 
would  have  much  the  advantage  of  him. 

We  have  not  yet  in  America  any  such  demand 
for  educated  agriculturists  as  exists  in  Europe : 
and  may  the  day  be  far  distant  when  there  shall 
be  any  such  demand.  In  Europe,  rich  lords  and 
great  proprietors,  holding  a  large  share  of  the 
soil  in  immense  estates,  are  very  glad  to  employ 
professional  agriculturists  as  stewards  and  over- 
seers. This  ■  furnishes  opportunity  for  the  grad- 
uates of  agricultural  colleges  to  practice  their  pro- 
fession, without  either  land  or  capital  of  their 
own.  Frequently,  also,  sons  of  the  great  pro- 
prietors devoting  themselves  to  the  management 
of  the  estates  they  expect  to  inherit,  attend  uikdu 
the  agricultural  schools ;  in  which  case  these  gen- 
trv  are  kept  in  better  quarters  and  on  daintier 
fare  than  their  fellow-students  of  low  birth.  The 
governments    of    Europe    employ    a    very    large 


12  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

number  of  experts  as  foresters,  gardeners,  and 
game  keepers. 

These  considerations,  while  they  furnish  no 
reason  for  doubting  the  feasibiHty  of  agricultural 
education,  do,  as  I  think,  constitute  a  just  excuse 
for  its  slow  development,  and  they  very  clearly 
indicate  that  the  American  agricultural  college 
must  have  a  home-grown  shape  adapted  to  the 
demands  of  the  times  and  to  the  relations  of 
American  rural  economy. 

Although  the  development  of  the  American 
agricultural  college  has  been  slow,  yet  excellent 
beginnings  have  at  length  been  made.  The  ex- 
periments made  in  Massachusetts,  Illinois,  and 
particularly  in  Michigan,  suggest  several  lines 
upon  which  it  may  take  place.  The  early  at- 
tempts at  forming  agricultural  schools  in  the 
State  of  New  York  and  elsewhere  have  shown 
also  by  what  courses  it  cannot  take  place.  These 
latter  experiments  prove  that  we  must  furnish 
better  material  for  such  schools  than  the  sons 
of  the  wealthy,  living  in  cities,  sent  from  home 
to  remove  them  from  temptation  and  idleness. 
Such  things  I  am  aware  would  not  be  said  by 
one  who  desired  merely  to  glorify  this  subject. 
They  who  honestly  and  heartily  wish  success  to 
the  agricultural  college  will  prefer  to  meet  all 
difficulties  at  the  outset.  Let  none,  however, 
doubt  the  feasibility  of  the  industrial  education, 
and  its  final  and  abundant  success. 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  13 

A    reason    for    so    much    elaboration    on    agricul- 
tural  education   at  the   time   is  found   in   the   follow- 
ing state  of  facts.     The   original  charter  of  the  Uni- 
versity    of    185 1    provided    for   a    college    of   agricul- 
ture.    Nevertheless,  the  legislature  of  1858  chartered 
a  separate  State  agricultural   college,  and  located  it 
at  Glencoe,  in   McLeod  County,  on  land  donated  by 
private  owners.     By  a  later  act  all  the  swamp  lands 
in    that    county   were   bestowed   on   the    corporation. 
The  legislature  of   1865   also  appropriated   to  it  the 
income    to    be    derived    from    the    grant    of    120,000 
acres  of  public  lands  accruing  to  the  State  from  the 
operation    of    the    so-called,    •'Morrill    Bill"    of    1862, 
to  promote   the   education   of   the   industrial    classes. 
Why  no  beginnings  were  made  at  Glencoe,  and  why 
those    in    control    of   the    endowments    were    or    be- 
came willing  to  give  up  their  enterprise  is  not  well- 
known.     They   made  no  opposition   to  the  action   of 
the  legislature   of   1868  when   it  merged  the   agricul- 
tural  college   lands   with   those   granted   to    the   Uni- 
versity.     The    regents    of   the    University   were    sin- 
cerely and  anxiously  desirous  to  justify  the  merger, 
and  demonstrate   their  good  faith  in  the  domain  of 
industrial   education.     There    were   those   who   ques- 
tioned it. 

The  speaker  made  no  mistake  in  counselling  pa- 
tience. Nearly  twenty  years  passed  before  the  Uni- 
versity of  ]Minnesota  found  its  place  and  work  in  the 
field  of  agriculture.  Year  after  year  the  annual 
calendars  announced  elaborate  courses  in  agricul- 
ture leading  to  the  bachelor's  degree,  but  there  were 
no  aspirants  for  that  degree  by  way  of  that  course. 
There  was  no  career  for  such  graduates.  In  1884 
the  president  of  the  university  in  a  public  address 
suggested  that  instruction  in  agriculture  might  be 
profitably   undertaken    in    secondary    schools.    Three 


14  UXIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

years  later  Professor  Edward  A.  Porter,  then  at 
the  head  of  the  department  on  agriculture,  struck 
out  a  plan  of  an  'industrial  school  of  agriculture'  tn 
be  kept  on  the  experimental  farm  two  miles  distant 
from  the  university  campus.  Professor  D.  L.  Kiehle, 
state  superintendent  of  public  instruction,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  board  of  regents  worked  out  the  peda- 
gogical details  and  submitted  a  definite  study  plan, 
which  was  accepted.  In  October,  1888  the  'School 
of  Agriculture'  was  opened  at  St.  Anthony  Park. 
Taking  boys  and  girls  from  their  rural  homes,  with 
a  common  school  preparation,  for  the  winter  months 
of  two  years,  this  'school'  gives  a  course  of  sci- 
ence and  practice  immediately  applicable  to  the  Min- 
nesota farm.  It  has  already  accomplished  a  great 
work.  An  unexpected  and  welcome  result  is  that 
an  increasing  number  of  the  students  are  continuing 
their  studies  through  the  'College  of  Agriculture' 
with  its  four-3'ear  course.  Two  hundred  and  seventy- 
one  are  enrolled  in  October.  1909. 

It  may  be  worthy  of  remark  that  the  Minnesota 
legislature,  when  reorganizing  the  projected  Agri- 
cultural College  at  Glencoe,  declared  the  design  of 
the  institution  to  be  "a  high  seminary  of  learning. 
in  which  graduates  of  the  common  schools  can  com- 
mence, pursue  and  finish  a  course  of  thorough  the- 
oretical and  practical  studies  *  *  *  in  agricul- 
ture and  kindred   industrial   pursuits." 

My  design  in  drawing  this  hasty  sketch  of  the 
rise  and  progress  of  professional  education,  is 
to  have  it  appear,  how  alongside  and  independ- 
ent of  our  common  schools,  our  academies  and 
colleges,  there  has  been  steadily  growing  up  in 
this  country  another  sort  of  educational  institu- 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  I5 

tions  having  a  peculiar  office,  and  answering  oth- 
er  demands.      Receiving  young  men   with   such 
furnishings    as   the   schools   or   the   college   may 
have  given  them,    these   new   schools   undertake 
merely  to  fit  them  for  those  arts  or  professions 
to  which  they  intend  to  devote  their  lives.     They 
presuppose  the  candidates  to  have  been  already 
trained  up  through  childhood  and  youth  to  man- 
hood,   and    to    understand    sufficiently    for    their 
ages   the   duties    and    obligations   of   citizenship, 
morality   and   religion.      They   have  no  dealings 
with  boys,  but  instruct  young  men  pursuing  vol- 
untarily and  therefore  zealously,  favorite  studies. 
These  schools  have  in  some  instances  been  es- 
tablished   upon    separate    foundations,   but   more 
frequentlv  they  have  been  associated  more  or  less 
closely  with  the  older  and  richer  colleges.     The 
economy   of  so  associating   them  was  long  ago 
obvious.     It  was  apparent  from  the  first  that  the 
same  chemist  could   instruct  at  once  candidates 
for  medicine,  mining,  manufacture  and  agricul- 
ture :  the  same  professor  of  intellectual  philoso- 
phv.  logic,  and  ethics,  could  lecture  to  members 
of  many   schools  at  once;  the   same  illustrative 
apparatus,    the    same    observatory,    library,    mu- 
seum would  serve   for  all.     A  common  govern- 
ment   could    regulate   the   general    concerns    an<l 
sanction  by  its  authority  all  public  acts. 

Such     a     federation    of    professional    schools 
one  might  sav  would  be  the  University.      Most 


l6  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

probably  it  would  be  merely  the  skeleton  of  the 
University.  Those  dry  bones  must  be  clothed 
upon  and  informed  with  an  animating  spirit  to 
present  the  living,  moving  body.  There  must  be 
some  common  bond  to  unite  the  many  in  one. 

I  think  it  is  generally  admitted  and  deplored 
that  the  standard  of  professional  Cjualifications  is 
disreputably  low.  Young  men  of  perhaps  a  fair 
common  school  or  academic  education  are  missed 
from  their  homes  during  parts  of  two  or  three 
years,  each  to  return  with  a  diploma  of  Doctor  of 
Medicine  or  Bachelor  of  Laws,  and  with  such 
hasty  and  superficial  furnishing,  offer  their  serv- 
ices to  the  public.  The  schools  of  technology 
detain  their  pupils  longer,  and  certainly  train 
them  more  thoroughly  than  do  the  colleges  of 
medicine  and  law,  but  there  is  probably  some 
just  ground  for  the  frequent  complaints  we  hear 
of  "kid  glove  engineering." 

The  standard  of  professional  education  has  been 
immensely  advanced.  Respectable  law  and  medical 
colleges  now  require  three  and  four  year  courses  for 
graduation,  and  a  preparation  at  least  equivalent  to 
that  required  of  academic  freshmen. 

We  are  not  content  that  the  graduates  of  our 
professional  schools  possess  merely  certain  tricks 
of  their  trades.  It  may  chance  that  our  ailment, 
lawsuit,  or  engineering  problem  is  not  just  such 
an  one  as  the  books   describe,  and   the  teachers 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  17 

have    shown    how    to    heal,    manage,    or    solve. 
What  we     demand  then,  is,  not  rnles,  but  prin- 
ciples ;    not    mere    tricks    of    art    and    sleight    of 
hand,    but    science ;   science   which   explains   and 
authenticates    art ;    which    makes    men    masters 
in  their  work,  and  not  mere  imitators  and  oper- 
atives.     There    is    a    strong   tendency    in    these 
times  to  specialties,  and   it   will   do  for  men  of 
generous  and  catholic  training,  as  ]\Iichelet  says, 
to  ''sow  the  furrow  of  a  strong  specialty  with  the 
seeds  of  all  the  sciences'" ;  but  his  specialty  makes 
the  ignorant  theologian  a  bigot,  the  ignorant  phys- 
ician a  quack,  and  the  ignorant  lawyer  a  petti- 
fogger.     We    need    to    put    a    solider    basis    of 
science  not  only  under  technical  arts  and  learned 
professions    but  under    commerce,    government, 
and  social  relations.     We  are  building  our  great 
national  fabric  according  to  the  rule  of  thumb. 
Our  best  thinkers  fail  to  devise  for  us  a  finan- 
cial policy,  by  which  the  people  may  most  safely 
lift  the  war  debt.     We  find  ourselves  mere  em- 
pirics  and   journeymen   at  handling  the  terrible 
social  problems  which  the  war,  the  migration  of 
races,  and  the  sudden  growth  of  great  cities  are 
thrusting  upon  us. 

The  "terrible  problems,"  political,  social  and  fi- 
nancial, are  still  with  us,  but  happily  we  have  begun 
to  apply  the  scientific  method  to  their  origin,  nature 
and  solution. 


i8  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

I  think  then  we  have  discovered  what  is  that 
informing  spirit  which  is  to  give  hfe  to  the  Hmbs 
and  elements  of  the  University ;  which  can  fuse, 
cement,  and  compact  them  into  a  harmonious 
organization.     It  is  Science. 

Such  a  federation  of  schools  as  I  have  men- 
tioned, embracing  potentially  all  subjects  of  hu- 
man and  practical  interest ;  teaching  always  with 
reference  to  principles ;  occupying  ever  an  atti- 
tude of  investigation ;  knowing  no  favorite  stud- 
ies ;  at  all  times  thoroughly  imbued  with  the 
scientific  spirit ;  that  is  the  University. 

The  distinction  between  college  and  university  had 
been  almost  lost  in  America.  To  the  ordinary  citi- 
zen they  were  one  thing.  It  was  therefore  thought 
desirable  to  emphasize  the  place  and  function  of  the 
universit3\  It  may  be  questioned  whether  any  one 
university  should  aspire  to  teach  all  sciences.  It  may 
be  found  feasible  to  form  federations  of  universi- 
ties, and  organize  division  of  labor  among  them. 
Practical  astronomy  for  instance  might  be  assigned 
to  some  ones  completely  equipped. 

I  speak  of  science  in  no  narrow,  physical,  utili- 
tarian sense.  The  metaphysical  sciences  will  be 
equally  dear  to  the  common  Alma  Mater.  Fond 
as  we  Americans  are  of  building,  proud  as  we 
are  of  our  victories  over  nature,  by  land  and 
sea,  we  still  find  our  dearest  action  and  interest 
in  human  nature.  "Homo  sum" ;  said  Terence, 
"humani  nihil  a  me  alienum  puto."    We,  too,  are 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  19 

men,  and  indifferent  to  nothing"  which  pertains 
to  man.  The  nniversity  will  teach  moral  science, 
the  ground  and  sanction  of  individual  conduct ; 
and  social  science,  which  comprises  the  principles 
governing  men  in  communities.  Teaching  the 
sciences  of  nature  and  of  human  nature  she  ma\-. 
(\\h}-  may  she  not?)  teach  also  the  science  of 
God,  so  far  as  our  knowledge  has  become  science. 
Dogmatic  theology  she  cannot  meddle  with,  it 
being  something  apart  from  and  additional  ti) 
science ;  but  the  history  of  religion,  like  the  his- 
tory of  art  or  literature,  may  fall  within  her 
sphere. 

It  ought  to  be  possible  for  a  university  to  teach 
Deistic  science,  and  '"glorify*'  the  true  God  by  ex- 
posing the  false  theologies  of  many  nations,  in  a 
manner  unobjectionable  to  all  citizens.  In  the  Uni- 
versity of  Minnesota  lectures  have  been  delivered 
on  the  Bible  as  literature,  and  instruction  given  in 
Hebrew  history  with  the  Bible  as  text-book,  without 
offense. 

We  might,  then,  sum  up  our  definition  of  the 
university  in  those  words,  already  classic,  of  our 
generous  countryman,  as  an  "institution  in  which 
any  person  can  find  instruction  in  any  study," 
it  being  presumed  that  the  distinguished  author 
of  the  legend  intended  by  the  words  "any  stud\"" 
to  mean  any  science. 

Ezra  Cornell,  founder  of  Cornell  Universitj",  at 
Ithaca,  N.  Y.    The  sentence  quoted  was  a  bold  prop- 


20  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

osition   forty   j^ears   ago.      It   appears   as    the   motto 
of  that   Universit3\ 

It  is  clearly  within  the  scope  of  the  university 
to  teach  all  the  sciences,  but  it  never  will  be  pos- 
sible  for  her  to  teach   all   the  arts.     A  lady  in 
Philadelphia  has  been  to  the  pains  of  making  up 
a  catalogue  of  633  professions,  trades,  and  crafts, 
which,  in  her  opinion,  women  can  practice  as  well 
as,  or  better  than  men.     I  suppose  we  may  add 
many   more,    which   men   alone  or   only   women 
can  profitably  pursue.     Now  no  school  can  un- 
dertake to  teach  a  thousand  trades ;  and  if  se- 
lections are  to   be   made,   the  w-eakest,  however 
worthy  in  themselves,  must  go  to  the  wall.   There 
is  danger,  I  think,  not  of  over-estimating  the  im- 
portance of  schools,  but  of  misconceiving  their 
proper  fttnction.     Schools  furnish  us  but  a  very 
small  part  of  the  knowledge  we  possess,  and  the 
value  of  what  knowledge  we  get  from  them  lies 
in  its  being  more  or  less  systematic,  that  is  scien- 
tific.    There  never  will  be  a  time   when  schools 
can   instruct  economically   in   any  large   number 
of  manual  operations,  whether  of  the  field  or  the 
shop.     The  farmer  must  learn  to  drive  the  plow 
on  the  land  he  tills,  the  engine  driver  must  mount 
the  foot-board,  the  sailor  must  learn  the  ropes  on 
deck  and  aloft,  the  printer  must  stand  up  to  his 
case,  the  book-binder  to  his  bench,  the  blacksmith 
must  don  the  leather  apron  and  build  his  fire  on 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  21 

the  forge.  All  of  them  Avill  resort  to  the  schools 
for  knowledge  of  the  mother  tongue,  of  the  hu- 
man body  and  how  to  use  and  care  for  it,  of  num- 
bers, of  nature  in  her  manifold  forms,  and  of 
the  laws  of  human  conduct  and  social  life.  I  think 
it  greatly  to  be  regretted  that  we  have  no  good 
system  of  apprenticeship  in  this  country.  For  lack 
of  it  we  are  obliged  to  import  our  first  class  me- 
chanics and  artisans.  I  do  not  believe  any  sys- 
tem of  schools  can  ever  replace  it.  The  Univer- 
sity, then,  will  do  best,  if,  attending  to  its  proper 
work,  the  cultivation  and  inculcation  of  science, 
it  do  not  neglect  this  for  the  less  worthy  and  less 
important  task  of  teaching  mere  tricks  of  trade. 
The  result  will  be  the  elevation  of  the  trades 
into  professions,  the  multiplication  of  inventions, 
and  the  diffusion  of  the  most  useful  knowledge. 

While  adhering  to  the  opinion  that  it  is  not  the 
function  of  the  university  to  teach  trades,  the  expe- 
rience of  late  years  requires  modification  of  the 
statement  that  schools  cannot  effectively  and  econom- 
ically do  that.  The  examples  of  the  Elmira  Reforma- 
tory, of  the  Pratt  Institute,  and  many  other  institutions 
have  proven  that  some  trades  can  be  taught  in  schools 
in  a  satisfactory  way.  European  experience  verifies 
this  abundantly. 

It  may  be  necessary  for  the  university  to 
teach  certain  arts  in  order  to  inculcate  and  illus- 
trate the  sciences,  but  her  processes  will  always 


22  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

be  costly,  and  from  a  commercial  point  of  view, 
extravagant. 

I  trust  that,  now,  there  remains  no  longer  any 
room  for  the  very  common  mistake  of  the  uni- 
versity as  being  merely  an  overgrown  college.  It 
is  not  numbers  which  give  character  to  the  one 
or  the  other.  We  have  seen  that  as  their  devel- 
opment has  been  independent,  so  likewise  are 
their  splieres  and  objects  different.  The  work 
of  the  college  is  to  train  up  youth  and  prepare 
them,  not  to  practice  a  profession,  but  to  enter 
upon  the  study  of  it. 

The  university  then  receives  them  and  in- 
structs them  in  the  principles,  and  to  some  ex- 
tent in  the  practice  of  the  callings  thc}^  have 
chosen.  She  presumes  them  to  bring  such  ac- 
quirements as  fit  them  to  receive  her  instruction. 
She  offers  to  teach,  within  reason,  whatever  use- 
ful science  the}-  wish  to  learn,  presuming  always 
that  the  near  approach  of  manhood  and  its  duties 
will  be  sufficient  stimulus  to  diligence,  and  that 
the  best  moral  discipline  is  to  be  got  when  the 
least  is  said  about  it.  If  consistent  with  her  the- 
ory, the  university  will  not  be  charged  with  the 
maintenance  of  students,  nor  will  she  interfere  in 
their  conduct,  further  than  to  forbid  and  punish 
wdiatever  acts  are  injurious  to  good  order,  or 
scandalous  to  her  name.  She  will  always  assume 
that  they  who  resort  to  her  are  capable  of  pro- 
viding  for  their   wants   and   of  governing  their 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  23 

passions  and  appetites.  If  she  depart  from  these 
rules  it  will  be  from  temporary  necessity. 

The  college  on  the  other  hand  is  false  to  its 
duty  and  theory  if  it  do  not  attend  to  the  physical 
and  moral  needs  of  the  immature  youth  whom  it 
undertakes  to  train  up  in  the  way  they  should  go. 
Removing  them  from  the  home  and  its  influences, 
it  is  bound  to  replace  the  family  government  and 
relationship  so  far  as  lies  in  her  power.  For  my 
part  1  sincerely  deplore  the  falling  off,  of  late 
years,  in  the  good  government  of  our  collegiate 
communities.  The  academic  freedom  so  proper 
to  the  mature  university  student  is  not  the  thing 
for  college  boys  in  their  teens.  Too  often  is 
the  parental  control  of  the  government  disarmed 
or  supplanted  by  the  public  sentiment  of  a  com- 
munity of  inexperienced  and  irresponsible  youth. 
This  comes  of  a  mingling  of  the  college  and  uni- 
versity methods,  a  thing  which  works  mischief, 
and  only  mischief. 

All  university  studies  being  in  a  manner  op- 
tional, it  is  evident  that  she  has  no  immediate  in- 
terest in  the  so-called  educational  problem  of  the 
day:  "whether  any  studies  should  be  pursued 
for  the  sake  of  mental  discipline,  or  whether 
discipline  should  be  got  in  following  favorite 
optional  studies."  The  college  is  much  more 
nearly  concerned  with  this  question.  It  has  some 
interest  for  us  here,  who,  pending  the  accumula- 
tion of  our  funds  and  the  full  equipment  of  the 


24  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

professional  departments^  are  engaged  in  what 
is  really  academic  and  collegiate  work.  Let  us, 
therefore,  for  a  moment,  attend  to  it.  The  mat- 
ter is  much  simplified  by  distinguishing  the  class 
of  students  to  whom  it  rightly  relates.  We  have 
seen  that  the  university  student  has  no  interest 
in  it.  Neither  have  the  pupils  of  the  lower 
schools,  engaged  as  they  are  in  learning  those 
elements  which  all  agree  to  be  indispensable  to 
every  age  and  condition  of  life.  There  remain, 
then,  only  those  youth  who,  having  passed  from 
the  common  schools,  are  to  be  put  upon  a  course 
of  higher  education  preparatory  either  to  the  uni- 
versity or  to  immediate  entrance  into  business. 

Now  it  is  clear  that  these  inexperienced  youth 
are  not  competent  to  decide  for  themselves  upon 
a  course  of  study.  If  all  were  optional,  and  some 
were  hard  and  others  easy,  we  all  know  which 
would  be  favorite  studies.  I  suppose  one  reason 
why  the  young  people  have  parents  and  teachers 
is,  that  such  matters  may  be  decided  for  them. 

A  longer  experience  has  shown  that  young  stu- 
dents some  times  choose  the  hardest  studies.  Some 
such  students,  however,  select  one  or  perhaps  two 
favorite  subjects  no  matter  how  difficult,  and  fill 
up  their  hours,  or  points,  or  credits  with  branches 
in  which  they  can  obtain  passing  marks  with  the 
least  possible  time  and  effort. 

The  question  then  stands,  not  what  courses  of 
study   shall  the   youth   choose    most   wisely,   but 


IXAUGURAL   ADDRESS  25 

what  ones  ought  parents  and  teachers  to  set  out 
and  require  them  to  follow.  Very  few  boys  and 
girls  under  eighteen  are  fit  to  make  choice  of  a 
life  pursuit;  and  premature  choice  is  injurious 
to  character  and  fatal  to  w'holesome  training.  Of 
all  shirks  and  ne'er-do-weels  in  college  you  may 
put  down  for  the  most  thorough-paced  those 
young  men  who  were  started  in  jackets  to  study 
for  some  particular  calling.  They  are  contin- 
ually saying  of  one  or  another  study,  "of  what 
use  will  this  be  to  me  when  I  am  a  minister,  a 
lawyer  or  a  doctor,"  neglecting  in  their  short- 
sightedness those  things  which  wiser  men  know 
to  be  for  their  best  good.  Nor  can  it  be  right 
for  a  parent  prematurely  and  arbitrarily  to  pre- 
scribe the  future  profession  of  his  child ;  it  will 
rather  be  his  duty  to  give  him  that  general  train- 
ing and  equipment  which  may  be  as  useful  in 
one  calling  as  another,  leaving  him  to  choose  for 
himself.  The  instances  of  remarkable  gifts  de- 
termining in  early  childhood  the  calling  of  the 
man  are  too  rare  to  furnish  any  rule. 

If  then  the  teacher  is  to  prescribe  a  curriculum, 
we  may  inquire  u[)on  what  principles  he  ought 
to  do  it. 

We  do  not  educate  children  for  their  own  sake 
merely,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  family  also.  So- 
ciety, too,  has  an  interest  in  the  matter;  and  so 
the  question  is  no  longer  one  of  expert  operatives, 
clever   artists,   sharp   men   of  business,   eloquent 


26  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

writers,  but  whether  there  shall  be  good  neigh- 
bors in  the  land,  and  intelligent  citizens,  honest 
and  capable  judges,  incorruptible  jurymen,  wise 
legislators,  prudent  executives.  Every  parent 
who  proposes  thoroughly  to  educate  his  boy  ought 
to  consider  himself  in  a  manner  the  steward  and 
servant  of  society.  "No  man  liveth  to  himself, 
and  no  man  dieth  to  himself" ;  which  the  sage 
of  Concord  phrases : 

"All  are  needed  by  each  one 
Nothing  is  fair  or  good  alone." 
This  being  granted,  I  am  prepared  to  admit 
that  the  aim  and  object  of  higher  education 
should  be  in  the  best  sense  of  the  term  "practical." 
I  would  never  compel  a  boy  or  girl  to  drudge 
and  agonize  over  any  study  as  a  mere  gymnastic. 
There  should  ever  be  held  out  a  worthy  reason, 
a  noble  and  practical  motive  for  all  the  lessons 
and  exercises  of  the  school.  What  shall  that 
motive  be? 

Aristippus  (so  runs  the  old  Greek  anecdote) 
having  been  asked  what  things  boys  ought  to 
learn,  said,  "Those  things  which  they  will  prac- 
tice when  they  become  men."  No  later  thinker 
has  stated  the  point  more  clearly  or  fairly ;  but 
the  old  Greek  has  been  sadly  misunderstood,  as 
if  instead  of  saying  men  he  had  said  workmen. 

The  Greek  philosopher  and  his  questioner  had  no 
thought    of    the    slaves    who   were    the    common    la- 


IXx\UGURAL   x\DDRESS  27 

borers  of  Attica,  nor  of  the  despised  aliens  who 
carried  on  trade.  It  was  the  Athenian  citizen,  war- 
rior  and  statesman  at  once,  they  had  in  mind. 

Then  let  boys  learn  those  things  which  they 
will  practice  when  they  become  men,  and  girls 
the  things  which  they  will  practice  when  they 
grow  up  to  womanhood.  And  what  things  will 
the  American  boy  practice  when  he  grows  up  to 
be  a  man?  He  will  be  a  farmer  or  artisan, 
physician  or  lawyer,  preacher,  teacher,  or  en- 
gineer? Yes,  some  one  of  these,  and  let  him 
be  no  mere  striker,  bungler  nor  empiric.  But  is 
this  all  ?  The  American  boy  growing  up  to  man- 
hood is  to  be  something  more  than  a  workman, 
whether  with  hands  or  brains.  He  will  be  friend 
and  neighbor,  a  member  of  society,  of  a  family, 
of  the  church,  and  will  practice  the  duties  of  these 
relations.  What  is  more,  he  will  be  a  citizen  of 
his  town  or  city,  of  his  state,  and  of  the  great 
Republic.  As  such  he  will  be  called  upon  to  give 
his  vote  upon  questions  of  policy  worthy  the 
genius  of  great  lawgivers,  and  which  in  mo- 
narchical countries,  wottld  be  confined  to  cabinets 
and  council  chambers ;  as  for  instance  such  a  one 
(we  cannot  enter  here  upon  it),  as  that  of  the 
relations  of  religion  to  our  common  schools,  of 
vJiich  a  leading  journal  of  the  day  says.  "A  tem- 
pest is  rising  which  will  rock  the  republic  to  its 
verv   foundations." 


28  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

The  name  of  the  leading  journal  is  not  remem- 
bered. That  tempest  has  not  seriously  disturbed  the 
foundations  of  the  republic.  There  is  less  rather 
than  more  of  the  species  of  'religion'  implied,  in  the 
common  schools  of  to-day.  In  that  time  the  state 
universities  had  not  conquered  the  ground  they 
hold  at  the  present.  Most  orthodox  people  be- 
lieved them  to  be  intruders  on  a  field  belonging  to 
the  church  colleges.  Even  in  later  years  there  were 
frenzied  preachers  who  denounced  the  University 
of  Minnesota,  as  inevitably  and  hopelessly  'godless' 
and  'infidel.'  One  of  them  has  broken  out  in  a  na- 
tional church  council  in  denuncation  of  the  state 
universities,  since   these  pages  went  to  the  printer. 

The  American  boy  will  not  be  merely  a  voter. 
He  should  be  fit  to  be  voted  for,  and  to  take  up, 
at  the  bidding  of  his  fellow  citizens,  the  duties 
and  responsibilities  of  public  service.  It  will  not 
do,  then,  in  America,  to  scrimp  and  narrow  high- 
er 'education  down  to  the  beggarly  limits  of 
mere  individual  demand ;  nor  will  it  do  here  in 
Minnesota,  where  farmers,  lumber  dealers,  and 
hardware  merchants  are  framing  the  statutes  of 
a  great  university. 

The  reference  was  to  leading  members  of  the 
board  of  regents,  in  particular  to  Messrs.  John  S. 
Pillsbury,    John    Nicols    and    Orlando    C.    Alerriman. 

Let  the  Republic  learn  a  lesson  (she  has  taken 
many  a  one)  from  an  old  world  monarchy.  In 
Prussia   and   other   German   states,   the   govern- 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  29 

ment,  under  advice  of  the  highest  educational 
authority,  prescribes  not  merely  what  studies 
shall  be  taught  in  the  high  schools,  but  in  what 
order  and  amount  they  shall  follow,  and  in  the 
very  number  of  hours  per  week  that  they  shall 
be  devoted  to  each,  and  finally  tests  the  work  by 
rigorous  examinations  conducted  by  persons 
other  than  the  teachers.  And  the  justification 
set  up  by  the  authorities  for  such  arbitrary  and 
despotic  legislation  is  just  this:  in  order  that  the 
youth  may  not  be  trained  up  in  any  selfish,  hap- 
hazard, utilitarian  way,  as  if  intended  to  be  mere 
operatives,  but  that  they  shall  be  so  instructed  in 
science,  language,  literature  and  even  religion,  as 
to  be  fit  not  merely  for  private  duties,  but  for 
the  public  and  social  relations  of  life.  If  mon- 
archs  and  aristocrats  arbitrarily  impose  such  a 
scheme  upon  subjects,  what  ought  not  the  sov- 
ereign people  of  a  free  country  to  demand  for 
themselves  ? 

The  sovereign  people  is  more  uncertain  now  than 
then  as  to  the  proper  work  of  their  schools.  There 
is  no  course  of  studies,  no  'curriculum'  in  any  stage 
of  our  schooling.  We  have  opened  the  doors  to 
'fads'  and  ranged  up  parallel  columns  of  differing 
courses,  and  given  the  pupils  their  choices  not  only 
of  the  courses  but  also  of  many  alternative  studies 
in  the  lists.  It  is  time  to  resist  the  pressure  to  mul- 
tiply subjects  in  the  schools  and  to  confine  the  pub- 
lic instruction  to  branches  generally  necessary  to 
citizens.  There  should  ever  be  a  wide  field  for  pri- 
vate   activity  in   education. 


30  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

We  are  ready  then  for  the  question :  What 
kind  of  studies  shall  we  require  the  youth  to 
pursue  in  the  schools  ? 

The  object  of  education  is  as  the  word  im- 
plies, "to  draw  out  the  man."  We  come  into  the 
world  not  merely  destitute  of  knowledge,  but  of 
consciousness  also.  The  child's  first  lesson  is 
to  learn  itself  and  the  use  of  its  limbs  and 
organs.  It  next  learns  to  know  other  persons, 
and  things ;  and  later  it  learns  what  is  given  us 
to  know  of  the  unseen  world. 

An  education,  then,  whether  in  or  out  of  school, 
has  these  ends,  and  these  only :  to  make  men  to 
know  themselves  body  and  soul,  to  know  nature 
and  human  nature,  and  "to  feel  after  God  if 
haply  they  may  find  him.  being  not  far  from 
every  one  of  us." 

This  statement  is  quite  inadequate  because  it  ig- 
nores the  fact  that  man  is  a  doer  as  well  as  a 
knower.  Education  should  prepare  for  action.  The 
pious  quotation  was  not  tagged  on  to  commend 
the  speaker  to  the  orthodox ;  he  was  sincerely  and  ac- 
tively religious. 

We  will  put  into  our  school  curriculums,  then, 
physiology  and  psychology;  science  of  the  body 
and  science  of  the  soul ;  then  numbers,  geog- 
raphy, and  the  grammar  of  the  natural  sciences. 
These  studies  teach  us  of  ourselves  and  the  vis- 
ible creation.       Those  which   unfold  the  nature 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  31 

of  man,  and  his  relations,  have  been  happily 
called  the  Jiuniaiiitics,  and  are  chiefly  history,  lit- 
erature, and  the  key  and  entrance  to  them  both, 
language.  From  history  we  learn  what  men  have 
done ;  from  literature  what  they  have  thought. 
We  do  not  cling  to  the  past  in  order  to  reproduce 
it,  but  because  we  cannot  spare  its  lessons.  We 
cannot  spare  its  examples  of  heroism,  martyr- 
dom, patriotism,  valor,  love.  Unhappy  will  that 
nation  be  which  cuts  itself  off  from  the  past. 
As  well  might  a  seaman  throw  overboard  his 
compass  and  charts,  and  resolve  to  steer  his  ship 
by  chalk  marks  on  her  taffrail. 

At  the  time  great  expectations  were  voiced  of  im- 
provements in  our  pedagogy  through  a  knowledge 
of  the  "child's  mind."  They  have  not  been  met. 
As  yet  the  "old  psychology"  has  contril)uled  little  to 
pedagogy,  and.  the  "new  psychology"  is  still  on  trial. 

I  have  said  that  language  is  the  key  to  his- 
tory and  literature.  Without  this  key  let  no  one 
hope  to  enter  their  most  sacred  and  fruitful  pre- 
cincts. But  language  has  claims  of  its  own. 
being  itself  a  science,  and  what  is  more,  has 
been  ranked  bv  so  great  an  authoritv  as  Max 
Mueller,  of  Oxford,  a  natural  science.  Regarded 
as  a  product  of  the  human  spirit,  shaped  and  con- 
ditioned by  the  organs  of  the  human  body,  lan- 
guage is  altogether  the  most  remarkable  phenom- 
enon of  human  existence.     The  human  bodv.  su 


32  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

"fearfully  and  wonderfully  made,"  is  mere  lum- 
ber compared  with  that  marvelous  mechanism, 
which  conveys  from  man  to  man,  from  nation  to 
nation,  and  from  age  to  age  the  inmost  workings 
of  the  invisible,  intangible  soul.  j\Ien  will  never 
cease  to  be  curious  about  this  wonderful  instru- 
ment, which  chiefly  marks  his  rank  as  the  "roof 
and  crown"  of  creation,  which  makes  society  pos- 
sible, and  which  unites  and  distinguishes  nations. 
To  handle  this  instrument  deftly,  to  make  it  serve 
its  purpose  of  telling  the  truth  and  nothing  but 
the  truth,  demands  more  knowledge,  skill  and 
practice  than  any  art ;  more  than  to  wield  the 
pencil  of  the  painter,  the  engraver's  burin,  the 
sculptor's  chisel.  Languages,  then,  must  ever 
hold  a  high  place  in  all  educational  schemes. 
And  to  know  and  be  master  of  language,  a  man 
must  study  other  languages  than  his  own.  Goethe 
most  profoundly  said :  "He  that  has  not  learned 
a  foreign  language  knows  nothing  of  his  own." 
A  double  reason,  then,  leads  educators  to  employ 
the  Greek,  the  Latin,  the  German,  and  the 
French.  Each  has  its  literature  and  history ;  each 
its  peculiar  influence  upon  the  English  of  the 
learner. 

I  must  be  allowed  to  praise  here,  the  ad- 
mirable judgment  and  liberality  of  those  who 
laid  the  foundations  of  this  institution,  in  mak- 
ing generous  provisions  for  teaching  languages. 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  -         33 

the  ancient,  the  modern,  and  last  but  not  least, 
our  own  peerless,  cosmopolitan  English. 

It  is  worth  while  to  note  in  passing,  that  the 
conflict  which  for  the  last  few  years  has  been 
waging  here  in  America  between  partisans  of 
classical  and  scientific  courses,  between  the  old 
education  and  the  new.  is  no  new  thing.  It  be- 
gan in  Germany  more  than  fifty  years  ago.  Dur- 
ing the  lapse  of  the  first  half  of  this  century, 
repeated  attempts  were  made  under  the  most  fa- 
vorable circumstances  and  with  the  most  august 
patronage  to  establish  and  conduct  schools  for 
the  higher  education  of  business  men,  artisans, 
and  farmers,  dispensing  with  the  ancient  lan- 
guages. The  results  are,  that  most  of  the  exper- 
riments  were  total  failures ;  some,  carried  on  in 
connection  with  classical  schools,  have  maintained 
an  existence.  For  those  which  survived  on  inde- 
pendent foundations,  in  Prussia,  the  government, 
by  its  minister  of  education,  in  1859,  issued  a 
set  of  final  regulations  which  put  down  Latin  to 
be  recited  from  three  to  eight  hours  a  week  for 
all  the  school  weeks  in  a  course  of  nine  years. 
Modern  languages,  English,  French  and  German 
replace  Greek  in  these  so-called  "Real"  or  Scien- 
tific schools. 

I  do  not  remember  to  have  seen  any  agricul- 
tural or  scientific  course  proposed  in  this  coun- 
try which  does  not  embrace  the  study  of  at  least 
one   foreign   language.      Still   all   I   would   insist 


34  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

upon  is  that  by  some  means  those  youth  whom 
we  undertake  to  educate  thoroughly,  be  trained 
in  the  use  of  language.  If  this  practical  end  can 
be  reached  by  way  of  the  modern,  easier  and 
surer  than  by  the  ancient  languages,  we  may 
heartily  rejoice.  Success,  then,  to  the  "New  Edu- 
cation," if  it  can  win  it. 

The  foregoing  talk  about  language  study  is  mostly 
"bosh."  The  speaker  had  won  his  spurs  as  a  teacher 
of  languages  before  the  war  of  the  slaveholders'  re- 
bellion, and  was  still  under  the  spell  of  the  old  su- 
perstition. He  has  long  since  ceased  to  believe  that 
a  knowledge  of  some  foreign  language  is  essential 
to  a  mastery  of  English,  spite  of  the  great  name  of 
Goethe.  Masters  of  English  can  get  much  out  of 
the  study  of  foreign  languages.  The  little  knowledge 
of  a  foreign  tongue,  ancient  or  modern,  to  be  got  in 
the  little  time,  and  b}^  the  possible  methods  of 
schools  is  of  slight  account.  The  fact  that  a  teach- 
er of  languages  can  set  definite  tasks  and  ascertain 
whether  his  pupils  have  performed  them  has  given 
the  "classics"  an  educational  value  not  to  be  too  light- 
ly appreciated.  We  have  yet  to  learn  how  to  make  a 
discipline   of   English. 

But  it  will  very  likely  be  said,  "the  curriculum 
proposed  for  the  youth  is  nothing  new,  for  it 
is  essentially  that  of  the  old  colleges."  Yes,  very 
nearly  that ;  almost  identical  with  the  college 
courses  of  thirty  years  ago,  before  they  had  be- 
come overloaded  with  all  sorts  of  ill-assorted, 
incoherent  additions.     Tt  is  a  curse  of  our  smaller 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  35 

colleges,  that  with  small  means  and  few  instruct- 
ors they  undertake  more  work  than  they  can 
possibly  perform  zvcll. 

With  the  establishment  of  the  university  on  its 
proper  ground,  a  reform  will  inevitably  be  de- 
manded in  its  organization.  A  few  of  the  older 
and  richer  institutions  will  assume  the  university 
character,  as  some  have  already  done.  But  the 
greater  number,  without  doubt,  will  be  forced  to 
return  to  their  original  and  natural  position  as 
secondary  schools.  They  will  curtail  their 
courses  instead  of  further  extending  them. 
They  will  resume  the  duty  of  providing  that  fam- 
ily government  and  parental  discipline  which 
they  retain  in  theory,  but  which  long  ago  fell 
into  disuse.  Such  schools  may,  and  as  many 
tliink,  ought,  to  be  distinctively  religious;  and 
if  private,  will  be  all  the  better  for  enjoying  the 
sponsorship  of  reputable  Christian  bodies. 

We  should,  therefore,  have  a  three-fold  scheme 
of  education,  ist.  The  common  schools.  2nd. 
The  colleges  or  secondary  schools.  3rd,  The 
university. 

The  common  schools  of  America  have  already 
been  largely  gratuitous.  They  will  by  and  by 
be  everywhere  free  in  that  sense.  A  grand 
thought  it  is  that  no  child  shall  ever  be  born  in 
the  State  of  Minnesota,  but  shall  be  free  to  take 
without  money  and  without  price  the  elements  of 
good  learning.    These  schools  will  always  remain. 


X 


36  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

in  some  sort,  public,  and  under  civil  control.  1 
hope  presently  to  show  that  the  University  must 
also  be  the  creature  and  care  of  the  state.  And 
the  reasons  I  shall  give  for  that  conclusion  will 
almost  necessarily  compel  the  further  admission 
that  the  state  must  in  some  manner  support  and 
control  the  secondar}-  schools ;  and  this  I  think 
it  can  do  without  trespassing  upon  any  private 
right,  offending  religious  sentiment,  or  violating 
any  American  principle.  I  know  not  how  this 
proposition  may  be  received  by  our  educational 
men  or  by  the  people,  but  I  think  I  ought  to  make 
it.  If  ever  any  such  system  of  secondary  schools 
shall  be  organized.  I  feel  certain  that  it  must 
provide  among  others  such  a  course  of  study  as 
I  have  mapped  out  for  the  college  or  higher  acad- 
emy, preparatory  to  the  university.  I  would  have 
that  course  prescribed  in  sufficient  detail  by  law. 
I  do  not  think  the  public  secondary  school 
would,  or  ought  wholly  to  supersede  the  private 
denominational  colleges.  There  will  always  be 
a  large  number  of  sons  and  daughters  of  tran- 
sient persons,  orphans  and  others,  who  will  need 
or  prefer  the  discipline  of  a  family  school,  and 
I  would  never  shut  private  competition  out  of  any 
field  of  work,  which  it  can  profitably  occupy.  The 
economy  of  such  secondary  high  schools  or  col- 
leges will  be  at  once  apparent,  if  we  but  mention, 
that  the  courses  of  study  being  few  and  limited. 
a  moderate  number  of   instructors  could  attend 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  37 

to  many  students,  that  no  elaborate  apparatus, 
museum,  or  library  would  be  essential  to  their 
successful  operation.  The  gain  would  be  im- 
mensely increased  so  soon  as  Ave  should  be  able 
to  relegate  to  these  schools  those  studies  which 
now  form  the  body  of  work  for  the  first  two 
years  in  our  ordinary  American  colleges.  It  is 
a  clear  case  that  such  a  transposition  must  by 
and  by  be  made.  For  certain  reasons  not  neces- 
sary, nor  advisable,  to  name  here,  the  reading  of 
classical  authors,  and  the  study  of  the  pure  math- 
ematics have  become  much  less  valuable  than 
formerly.  In  fact,  the  causes  I  allude  to  have 
driven  the  best  methods  of  instruction  out  of  the 
colleges. 

The  principal  of  the  suppressed  reasons  for  the  al- 
leged deterioration  of  classical  study  and  instruction 
was  the  clandestine  use  of  "cribs"  and  "ponies"  by 
college  students,  which  had  not  long  before  become 
much  too  general,  owing  to  the  publication  of  the 
Bohn   translations. 

How  immense  the  gain,  then,  if  a  youth 
could  remain  at  the  high  school  or  academy, 
residing  in  his  home,  until  he  had  reached  a 
point,  say,  somewhere  near  the  end  of  the  Soph- 
omore year,  there  to  go  over  all  those  studies 
which  as  a  ])oy  he  ought  to  study,  "under  tutors 
and  governors."  Then  let  the  boy,  grown  up 
to  be  a  man,  emigrate  to  the  university,  there  to 


38  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

enter  upon  the  work  of  a  man,  to  be  master  of 
his  time  and  studies,  to  enjoy  perfect  "academic 
freedom,"  keeping"  only  to  the  rule,  of  so  using 
his  own  as  not  to  harm  another.  No  man 
can  be  a  scholar  till  he  has  learned  to  be  his  own 
teacher.  This  may  be  that  time  of  trial  through 
which  every  young  man  must  pass  in  order  to 
prove  him,  whether  he  will  be  a  true  man  or  no. 

This  proposal  to  dethrone  the  traditional  system 
of  higher  education  seemed  to  orthodox  friends  who 
really  understood  it  as  the  rant  of  a  wild  educational 
mutineer.  That  "The  American  College"  could  pos- 
sibly be  improved  upon  was  inconceivable.  Away 
back  in  the  '50's  when  the  speaker  was  a  school- 
boy he  enjoyed  the  friendship  of  Professor  Charles 
A.  Joy  of  Columbia  College,  who  had  taken  up  his 
life  work  after  a  long  period  of  study  in  German 
universities.  From  him  came  the  knowledge  of  the 
gymnasium,  the  splendid  secondary  school,  fitting 
German  boys  for  the  work  of  men  in  the  university. 
During  nearly  twenty  years  of  teaching,  military 
service    and    business    the    idea    incubated.  With 

great  trepidation  the  speaker  ventured,  on  this  (for 
him),  most  important  occasion  to  announce  the 
principle  of  a  system  of  public  education,  with  its 
natural  trinity  of  epochs,  primary,  secondary,  supe- 
rior. That  it  was  not  openly  and  vigorously  de- 
nounced, was  due  to  the  fact  that  it  was  not  under- 
stood, or.  if  understood,  was  not  taken  seriously. 

The  college  may  be  denominational,  but  the 
university  must  be  secular.  The  Church  certainly 
has  no  sttfficient  motive,  and  as  things  are,  can- 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  39 

not  command  the  means  to  erect  and  control  it. 
The  interest  of  the  Church  in  science  is  an  indi- 
rect and  secondary  one,  and  is  in  results  rather 
than  in  methods.  What  she  is  chieliy  concerned 
in  is,  that  "children  he  virtuously  brought  up 
tc  lead  a  godly  and  Christian  life."  Her  efforts, 
then,  ought  to  be  exerted  upon  children  and 
youth,  so  far  as  she  will  interfere  in  education 
at  all.  When  she  shall  have  carried  the  gospel 
and  the  elements  of  civilization  to  all  accessible 
heathen,  it  will  be  time  enough  for  her  to  invest 
the  tithes  and  offerings  in  observatories,  dissect- 
ing rooms,  moot  courts,  and  experimental  farms. 

Though  the  Church  has  no  proper  motive  nor 
any  means  she  can  consistently  use  to  endow 
the  university,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  uni- 
versity must  or  can  be  unchristian,  for  her  very 
office  and  occupation  are  the  discovery  and  in- 
culcation of  truth.  To  ignore  Christianity,  she 
must  ignore  history,  and  banish  literature.  She 
may,  and  even  ought  to  teach  all  the  sciences 
which  underlie  the  clerical  profession ;  but  she 
can  no  more  undertake  to  teach  denominational 
dogmas,  than  to  recognize  the  thousand  "isms, 
'pathies.  and  'ologies  which  claim  a  connection 
with    other   professions. 

W'e  have  seen  that  religion  has  no  call  to 
found  a  university.  No  argument  is  needed  to 
show  that  individual  men  cannot  be  depended  up- 
on to  perform  that  service.    We  can  applaud  our 


40  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

Vassars,  and  Cornells,  our  Packers  and  Pea- 
bodys,  and  honor  ourselves  in  calling  down  ben- 
edictions upon  them,  but  we  cannot  compel  their 
beneficence;  Minnesota  cannot  postpone  her  uni- 
versity until  some  public-spirited  millionaire 
comes  down  with  the  needful  millions. 

The  public  spirited  millionaire  has  come  with  his 
millions.  He  has  founded  new  universities,  supe- 
rior in  plant,  equipment  and  strength  of  teaching 
force  to  existing  institutions  one  or  two  centuries 
old.  To  many  of  the  latter  he  has,  by  princely  gifts 
of  buildings,  books,  and  endowment  funds,  given  new 
life,  and  expanded  efficiency.  By  generous  distribu- 
tion of  retiring  allowances,  he  has  released  scores  of 
colleges  of  the  support  of  superannuated  teachers, 
and  made  them  happj'  with  a  secured  maintenance 
in  their  old  age.  So  far  as  dollars  are  concerned, 
it  may  be  that  university  education  might  be  main- 
tained altogether  by  the  enlightened  generosity  of 
Cornells,  Stanfords,  Rockefellers,  and  Carnegies.  It 
may  be  that  no  state  will  ever  be  so  generous 
toward  her  university  as  these  great  benefactors 
towards  those  founded  by  themselves.  Shall  the 
state  then  dismantle  and  disband  her  university? 
Up  to  this  time  Minnesota  has  had  no  call  to  con- 
sider any  such  proposition. 

The  essential  thing  is  that  the  state  must  see  to 
it  that  there  shall  be  a  university,  to  complete  and 
balance  the  system  of  public  education.  Should  it 
be  the  pleasure  of  some  man  of  great  wealth  and 
great  heart  to  found  and  endow  a  university  of  am- 
ple scope,  to  be  virtually  the  State  University,  it  is 
not  easy  to  see  why  he  might  not  be  accommodated, 
and    the    taxpayers    relieved.        The    state    Would,    of 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  41 

course,  preserve  her  power  of  visitation.  In  a  very 
large  state  there  may  be  room  (as  in  California) 
for  a  university  of  magnificent  proportions,  private- 
ly endowed,  alongside  of  the  state's  university.  In 
small  states  the  desirable  thing  is  that  private  gifts 
of  ordinary  magnitude,  go  to  swell  the  resources  of 
the  state  universitj-.  Universities  are  much  too  cost- 
ly to  be  multiplied  merely  to  serve  as  monuments 
to  millionaires. 

There  remains,  then,  but  one  resource.  The 
State,  the  Commonwealth,  the  sovereign  people 
ill  their  organized  poHtical  capacity  must  found 
the  university, 

I  do  not  care  to  insist  that  the  state  is  bound 
to  endow  the  university  for  the  same  reason  we 
use  to  justify  her  interference  in  primary  edu- 
cation, viz. :  that  luiiversity  education  is  abso- 
kitely  essential  to  the  existence  and  preservation 
of  free  institutions.  I  am  content  merely  to 
urge  that  university  education  is  essential  to  the 
well-being,  rather  than  to  the  being  of  the  state ; 
this  granted,  our  case  is  made. 

What  then  can  the  university  do  for  the  state  ? 
First  of  all  she  can  form  the  liead  and  crown 
of  our  system  of  schools,  sending  her  life-giving 
influence  to  its  remotest  fibres.  The  university 
should  be  the  great  normal  school  for  teachers 
of  high  schools,  academies  and  colleges.  The 
university  by  refusing  its  degrees  and  honors 
to  illiterate  and  unworthy  candidates,  can  not 
only  raise  the  standard  of  scholarship  in  all  the 


42  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

schools,  but  can  elevate  the  professions  from 
the  low  condition  into  which  they  have  con- 
fessedly fallen.  And  there  is  another  consider- 
ation, which  ought  to  be  mentioned  here. 
The  university  in  organizing  colleges  of  medicine 
and  law,  owes  it  to  the  people  not  merely  to  in- 
struct the  few  to  heal  diseases,  and  manage  suits 
at  law,  but  to  teach  the  many  how  to  keep  well 
and  out  of  litigation. 

The  original  charter  of  1851  of  the  Universit}-  of 
Minnesota,  provided  for  a  normal  department;  that 
of  1868,  did  not  so  provide  in  terms,  but  the  re- 
gents were  left  free  to  include  one  in  the  "more  col- 
leges" authorized.  Pedagogical  instruction  was  be- 
gun by  Professor  Kiehle  in  the  late  nineties,  but  the 
college  of  education  was  not  formally  organized 
till  1907;  thus,  tardily  justifying  the  prescience  of 
the  first  projectors. 

As  to  the  standard  of  scholarship,  this  university 
has  maintained  a  fairly  respectable  grade. 

For  some  years  after  the  beginning  of  college 
work  in  the  University  of  Minnesota  an  emphasis 
probably  too  great  was  laid  b}'  the  management  on 
scholastic  performances,  but  later,  with  a  worldly 
wisdom  which  must  be  commended,  the  authorities 
have  preferred  to  pursue  a  policy  calculated  to  win 
public  support,  rather  than  the  approval  of  schol- 
ars. Nothing  so  much  pleases  the  public,  and  legis- 
latures as  bigness.  The  university  which  attracts 
and  keeps  great  numbers  of  students,  can  have  ap- 
propriations after  its  desire.  The  public  would  hard- 
ly support  an  institution  whose  examinations  should 
exclude    applicants   with   imperfect   preparation,   and 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  43 

eliminate  from  its  classes  students  who  fail  to 
obtain  high  percentages  in  the  examinations.  Yet 
that  would  be  an  ideal  university  which  admitted 
and  kept  at  work  only  the  elite  youth  of  the  state, 
in  reduced  numbers.  Under  the  elective  system, 
which  has  had  a  great  development  in  this  univer- 
sity, the  old  plan  of  ranking  candidates  for  the 
bachelor's  degree  according  to  the  marks  obtained 
in  their  recitations  and  exercises,  became  imprac- 
ticable and  ridiculous  and  has  been  given  up.  So  al- 
so, has  the  classification  of  bachelors  into  those  of 
Arts,  Science,  and  Literature:  all  are  now  bachelors 
of  Arts.  The  bachelor's  degree  in  these  days  certi- 
fies that  the  bearer  has  passed  four  years  in  some 
college,  has  maintained  a  tolerable  scholarship,  and 
has  kept  the  peace.  It  would  be  common  sense  to 
abolish  it  altogether,  but  tradition  is  powerful  and 
"hocce  diploma"  will  long  continue  to  be  handed 
out  on  the  commencement  stage.  Such  being  the 
case  it  would  be  well  to  follow  English  precedent, 
and  let  the  bachelor's  degree  stand  for  a  "pass  de- 
gree," and  supplement  it  by  an  honor  system  involv- 
ing rigorous  examinations  conducted  by  examiners 
other  than  the  teachers.  Teachers  should  always  be 
holding  examinations  in  some  form,  but  no  honors 
should  be  conferred  for  them. 

It  must  be  added  that  this  University  has  stood 
firmlj-  by  its  early  promise  never  to  confer  degrees 
except  for  merit  ascertained  by  examinations. 

The  colleges  of  la\v  and  medicine  (which  for  the 
present  purpose  may  include  those  of  pharmacy  and 
dentistry"),  have  from  their  organization  in  1888, 
steadily  advanced  the  thoroughness  of  their  instruc- 
tion, and  the  rigor  of  their  examinations.  Both 
have  extended  their  courses  to  cover  four  full  years, 
and  established  conditions  of  admission,  as  exacting. 


44  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

probably,  as  the  present  state  of  our  education  war- 
rants. In  the  good  time  coming  thej^  will  exact  the 
complete  secondary  school  preparation  contemplated 
in  this  address.  Indeed  public  notice  has  been  giv- 
en   of   such   intention. 

The  time  is  not  distant  when  a  Department  of 
Public  Health  will  be  established  in  all  imiver- 
sities,  which  will  teach  all  that  can  be  known  as 
to  the  causes  of  epidemics,  the  sanitary  conditions 
and  control  of  cities,  hospitals,  asylums,  prisons, 
school  buildings,  dwellings  and  all  constructions 
and  enclosures. 

Dr.  Charles  N.  Hewitt  was  for  nearly  a  quarter 
of  a  century  the  executive  secretary  of  the  state 
board  of  health.  In  that  office  he  conferred  great 
benefits  on  the  state  and  won  an  international  rep- 
utation. He  was  elected  non-resident  professor  of 
public  health  in  the  university,  and  for  many  years, 
gave  instruction  to  the  academic  students  on  the 
hygiene  of  the  individual,  the  family  and  the  city, 
of  great  interest  and  value.  After  the  organization 
of  the  college  of  medicine  and  his  removal  from  of- 
fice for  political  reasons,  the  board  of  regents  un- 
advisedly, and  in  a  manner  disrespectful  to  one  who 
had  served  many  years  without  compensation,  left 
his  name  off  the  roll  of  instructors  and  discontin- 
ued his  department.  This  was  a  move  to  the  rear. 
The  University  of  Minnesota  may  some  time  be 
boasting  that  she  was  the  first  in  America  to  open 
a  "department  of  Public  Health." 

The  university  will  accumulate  and  maintain 
a  great  library,  to  which  citizens  can  resort  for 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  45 

complete  information  on  any  useful  subject. 
A^ext  to  the  instruction,  the  library  is  the  great 
interest  of  the  university.  Mr.  Carlyle,  speaking 
to  the  youth  of  Edinburgh  University  said  to 
them  in  his  quaint  way,  "The  main  use  of  uni- 
versities in  the  present  age  is  that,  after  you  have 
done  with  all  your  classes,  the  next  thing  is  a 
collection  of  books,  a  great  library  of  good  books, 
which  you  proceed  to  study  and  to  read."  To 
such  a  library  as  will  some  day  exist  here,  can 
resort  not  only  the  scholar,  and  the  learned  au- 
thor, but  the  historian,  the  statistician,  the  legis- 
lator, the  editor,  the  manufacturer  and  the  in- 
ventor, to  consult  those  works  which  are  beyond 
reach  of  private  means. 

In  regard  to  the  library  it  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  the  policy  the  regents  and  the  state  has  been 
niggardly.  For  nearly  forty  years  the  oversight 
was  left  to  a  busy  professor  who  was  allowed  a 
petty  compensation  for  the  extra  labor.  In  1895, 
scorning  all  professional  counsel  the  regents  erect- 
ed a  library  building  violating  every  principle  of 
library  construction,  at  a  cost  of  $^00,000.  It  would 
have  been  far  more  judicious  to  expend  $50,000  or 
say,  $75,000  on  a  plain  brick  building  and  put  the 
rest  of  the  money  into  books.  All  the  books  now 
owned  by  the  institution  do  not  exceed  120,000.  This 
number  ought  to  be  quadrupled  in  the  next  decade. 
The  University  of  Chicago  bought  300.000  books 
and    housed    them    in    a    building    which    cost    $12,500. 

Next,  the  university  will  collect  and  arrange 
a  museum  of  history,   natural   history,  and   art. 


46  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

It  is  difficult  in  a  new  country  to  appreciate  the 
value  and  importance  of  such  collections.  We 
are  too  easily  misled  into  thinking  of  the  museum 
as  a  mere  "curiosity  shop."  The  museum  is  the 
perfection  and  climax  of  object-teaching.  One 
glance  at  a  fossil  skeleton,  the  sight  of  a  piece 
of  coral,  a  trilobite.  or  a  fern  from  the  coal-beds 
gives  to  the  young  geologist  an  insight  not  to 
be  won  from  volumes  of  reading.  If  you  wish 
your  young  machinist  to  comprehend  the  steam 
engine,  show  him  one  in  operation.  Waste  no 
useless  talk  to  inexperienced  youth  upon  the 
beauties  of  fine  art.  but  hang  up  "the  Transfig- 
uration," bring  forth  an  Etruscan  vase,  unveil 
the  marble  form  of  that  Gladiator  of  the  Capitol, 
"butchered  to  make  a  Roman  holiday." 

The  museum  as  conceived  but  very  inadequately 
announced  by  the  speaker,  is  almost  as  far  from  re- 
alization in  the  University  of  Minnesota,  as  in  1869. 
The  geological  collections  made  in  the  course  of  the 
geological  survey  is  about  all  there  is  to  show.  The 
cost  of  collecting,  housing,  maintaining  and  admin- 
istering museums  of  general  character  is  so  enor- 
mous that  only  the  richest  of  institutions  can  as- 
pire to  them.  The  universitj'  of  a  large  and  popu- 
lous state  should  be  the  appropriate  agency  for 
the  one  great  museum  the  state  needs  to  afford.  It 
is  too  much  to  hope  that  even  the  richest  of  univer- 
sities will  soon  undertake  to  maintain  a  continuous 
world's  fair,  but  it  should  be  reckoned  among  its 
ideals. 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  47 

Another  function  of  the  university  is  to  pros- 
ecute those  scientific  researches  and  make  those 
costly  experiments  in  the  arts  for  which  private 
investigators  lack  the   means ;  such  experiments 
for  instance,  as  those  of  Lawes  and  Gilbert  upon 
the  nutrition  of  plants.   We  purchase  a  telegraph, 
the  photograph,  a  new   m©tor,  the  spectroscope, 
the  lucifer  match,  or  chloroform  cheaply  at  the 
price  of  fifty  years  of  seemingly  fruitless  labora- 
tory  work.   Chloroform   alone   pays    for  all   the 
money  ever  expended  in  chemical  researches.  To 
take  a  case  nearer  home  ;  if  the  expenditure  of  say 
$20,000  could  result  in  discovering  but  one  spe- 
cies of  the  apple,  sure  to  thrive  in  Minnesota,  no 
one  would  call  that  money  ill  spent.  Closely  con- 
nected  with   this     function   is   another:   that   of 
stimulating  invention  and  patronizing  inventors. 
Let  it  never  be  forgotten  when  giving  to  James 
Watt,  the  immortal  benefactor  of  his  race,  that 
applause  he  so  richly  deserves,  to  celebrate  also 
that  University  of  Glasgow  which  sheltered  him, 
and  those  her  learned   and  generous  professors 
who  appreciated  his  gifts,  assisted  him  through 
his  struggles,  and  without  jealousy  rejoiced  in  his 
triumphs.     The  university  should  be  the  natural 
resort  and  resource  of  the  inventor  for  counsel 
and  for  information.     Were  the  university  ready 
to  do  her  full  work  here,  there  would,  I  believe, 
be  less  money  squandered  in  patent  right  hum- 


48  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

bugs,  and   fewer  brains  addled   with  "perpetual 
motion." 

It  is  hardly  necessary  in  these  days  to  emphasize 
the  practical  value  of  the  scientific  researches  car- 
ried on  by  university  men.  A  single  example  may  be 
noted  in  the  case  of  Professor  Alichelson  of  the 
University  of  Chicago,  winner  of  the  Nobel  prize 
in  1907,  for  his  invention  of  the  "Interferometer." 
This  instrument  gives  the  world  an  absolute  stand- 
ard of  measure  in  wave  lengths  of  light. 

The  apple  illustration  has  not  been  literally  illus- 
trated in  Minnesota,  but  it  has  been  the  honorable 
part  of  her  university  to  encourage  and  reward  the 
late  Peter  M.  Gideon,  discoverer  of  the  Wealthy  ap- 
ple, now  grown  all  over  the  Northwest. 

As  a  part  of  her  practical  scientific  work,  the 
university  will  build  and  operate  the  observa- 
tory, in  which  will  be  made  perpetual  observations 
on  the  weather,  the  magnetic  forces,  and  on  heav- 
enly bodies.  And  I  cannot  think  of  any  more 
practical  use  to  which  her  means  can  be  put.  Take 
as  an  illustration  of  the  possible  results  of  mete- 
orological researches,  the  great  discovery  of  the 
laws  of  circular  storms,  the  knowledge  of  which 
enables  the  modern  navigator  to  steer  clear  of 
them  with  almost  unerring  precision.  The  ob- 
servatory is  needed  not  alone  for  its  practical  uses, 
but  for  its  stimulating  influence  upon  all  the  de- 
partments of  science,  especially  upon  mathema- 
tics and  the  physical  sciences. 

The  mere  keeping  of  correct  time  is  no  trifling 
matter.     The   movements  of  railwav  trains,  the 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  49 

sittings  of  courts  and  legislative  bodies,  the  ses- 
sions of  the  schools,  the  very  titles  to  our  home- 
steads, the  daily  routine  of  our  mills  and  facto- 
ries, the  wages  of  our  laborers  require  the  main- 
tenance of  an  absolute  standard  of  time.  The 
great  clock  of  the  heavens  alone  can  furnish  that, 
and  the  astronomer  only  can  read  its  radiant  dial- 
plate.  I  would  therefore  require  the  university 
astronomer,  by  means  of  telegraphic  wires  to 
drop  a  signal  ball,  daily  at  noon,  atop  of  every 
court  house  and  public  building  in  the  state. 

The  speaker's  exhortation  received  a  tardy  ful- 
hlhnent.  It  was  not  till  1892  that  a  small  observatory 
was  erected  and  supplied  with  instruments  sufficient 
for  instruction.  The  trustees  of  Carleton  College, 
more  enterprising  and  appreciative  than  the  regents 
of  the  university,  in  1878  established  an  observatory, 
which  soon  became  known  throughout  the  learned 
world.  It  has  ever  since  furnished  true  time  to  the 
Minnesota  railroads  and  public  offices.  The  classes 
of  the  state  university  were  for  many  years  called 
by   Xorthfield  time. 

I  see  now  that  I  can  only  enumerate  without 
detail  several  other  particular  demands  of  the 
public  on  the  university.  The  state  needs  not 
merely  intelligent  voters ;  she  more  and  more  re- 
quires with  the  advance  of  time,  and  multiplica- 
tion of  interests,  experts  in  legislation,  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  public  affairs,  and  for  her  mili- 
tary defense.     It  will.  I  think,  presently  become 


50  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

apparent  that  this  need  is  so  imperative  that  the 
state  generally  will  be  forced  to  provide  means 
whereby,  and  places  in  which  instruction  may  be 
had  in  such  sciences  as  political  economy,  inter- 
national law,  the  science  of  government,  parlia- 
mentary usage,  the  keeping  of  public  accounts 
and  the  science  and  art  of  war.  We  cannot  much 
longer  run  the  risk  of  private  institutions,  wheth- 
er secular  or  religious,  prosecuting  thoroughly 
and  practically  these  subjects.  Already  we  have  a 
great  accumulation  of  political  questions;  ques- 
tions of  suffrage,  of  tariffs,  of  railroads,  of 
schools,  of  finance,  any  one  of  which  is  too  big 
and  too  complicated  to  be  handled  by  any  who 
does  not  make  it  his  special  study.  It  is  true  the 
imiversit}'  can  teach  nothing  finally  nor  dogmat- 
ically upon  such  questions,  but  she  can  train  up 
generations  of  men  to  be  their  own  teachers,  and 
to  verse  themselves  in  those  matters.  It  is  al- 
ready clearly  impossible  for  us  to  preserve  civil 
institutions  so  simple  as  to  be  within  the  easy 
comprehension  of  all  citizens ;  and  since  we  must 
trust  to  experts,  let  us  have  the  best. 

The  writer  took  up  the  instruction  in  economics 
and  politics  in  1875,  as  soon  as  any  class  was  ready 
for  it  and  for  more  than  twenty  years  gave  all  that 
was  offered  in  an  institution  called  "university."' 
Whether  they  did  not  care  about  this  great  field  of 
learning,  especially  deserving  their  promotion,  or 
because   they   were   more   interested   in   other   sciences, 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  51 

or  because  the  teacher  lacked  ability  to  stimulate 
them  to  action,  the  regents  dallied  and  temporized, 
and  gave  the  most  important  department  in  their 
care  a  tardy  development.  They  are  still  twenty 
years  behind  the  age,  but  under  the  stimulus  of  an 
able  and  ambitious  head  of  department,  who  knows 
how  to  marshal  public  bodies  and  the  press  they 
give  signs  of  movement. 

As    to    the    importance    of    keeping    alive    the 
military  spirit  of  the  people,  and  the  practice  of 
arms.  I  need  only  point  for  assurance  to  the  con- 
dition in  which  many  of  our  states  found  them- 
selves at  the  outbreak  of  the  late  civil  war.     The 
state  university  with  a  trifling  expense  of  time 
and  money,  can  secure  to  the  whole  body  of  its 
male   students   a   fair  knowledge  of  the  use    of 
arms,  and  can  thoroughly  instruct  some  portion 
of  them  in  the  elements  of  military  science.     The 
result  would  be  that,  should  there  unfortunately 
occur  the  need,  many  hundred  young  men  would 
be  ready  and  competent  to  organize  and  command 
companies   and  battalions.     To   render   such   in- 
struction in  any  high  degree  profitable,  however, 
the  university  must  in  some  manner  derive  au- 
thority from  the  state  to  enforce,  so  far  as  may 
be  necessary,  military  discipline. 

Under  a  succession  of  worth}'  and  ingenious  army 
officers  the  military  instruction  required  by  the 
"Morrill  Bill"  of  1862  of  all  institutions  sharing  in 
the    benefits   of   the    act,   has    been    carried   on    with 


52  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

commendable  fidelity  and  success.  It  has  been  and 
will  continue  to  be,  difficult  to  fit  in  military  drill 
requiring  the  attendance  of  all  male  students  at 
the  same  hour  into  a  university  program.  This 
difficulty  will  be  remedied  when  the  Government 
comes  to  detail  a  sufficient  number  of  sergeants  to 
assist  the  army  officer  furnished  as  commandant  of 
cadets.  Mere  "drill"  ought  to  be  taught  to  boys 
in  the  preparatory  schools,  leaving  the  university  to 
add  instruction  in  military  science  proper.  The  pros- 
perity and  admirable  efficiency  of  such  military 
schools  of  secondary  rank  as  Shattuck  School  at 
Faribault,  is  good  warrant  for  this  suggestion.  Ex- 
perience has  not  shown  the  need  of  special  military 
authority. 

It  may  be  expecting  too  much  of  the  near  fu- 
ture, but  it  is  still  gratifying  to  hope,  that  it  may 
give  to  the  American  states  and  nation,  some 
such  system  as  that  already  long  in  use  in  Eng- 
land, and  as  proposed  in  Congress  by  ]\Ir.  Jenckes. 
of  Rhode  Island,  a  "civil  service  system"  which 
will  require  candidates  for  public  preferment  to 
prove  their  fitness  for  the  offices  aspired  to  by 
passing  examinations  before  impartial  boards. 
If  ever  that  day  shall  come  when  the  state  shall 
make  such  demands  upon  those  whom  she  calls 
into  her  service,  they  in  turn,  will  require  with  a 
certain  justice  that  she  furnish  the  instruction. 
If  she  do  this  at  all,  she  must  do  it  generously 
and  freely,  for  there  must  never  be  in  a  republi- 
can country  any  position  of  honor  or  trust  to 
which  the  humblest  citizen  may  not  aspire. 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  S3 

As  already  shown  the  University  of  Minnesota 
has  still  to  provide  for  large  and  liberal  instruction 
in  economics,  taxation,  administration  and  finance, 
and  other  studies  proper  to  equip  men  for  the  pub- 
lic service.  The  progress  in  Civil  Service  reform  in 
state  and  municipal  affairs  still  lags  behind  that  in 
national. 

A  member  of  the  University  faculty  is  matur- 
ing and  will  propose  a  plan  by  which  the  Uni- 
versity will  be  charged  with  a  survey  of  the 
State,  to  embrace  not  merely  its  topography,  and 
geology,  but  its  hydrography,  its  botany,  its  en- 
tomology. A  part  of  the  plan  will  be  to  furnish 
scientific  employment  for  a  number  of  years  to 
young  men  pursuing  scientific  studies  at  the  Uni- 
versity. 

The  faculty  member  referred  to  was  Professor 
Arthur  Beardsley,  then  instructor  in  civil  engineer- 
ing. The  project  was  much  discussed  between  him, 
Professor  Edward  Hadley  Twining,  and  the  speak- 
er. Both  gentlemen  were  soon  called  to  other  in- 
stitutions. It  remained  for  the  president  of  the 
University  in  the  winter  of  1872  to  draft  a  bill  for 
the  organization  of  a  geological  and  natural  history 
survey  of  the  state,  which  was  easily  passed  through 
the  legislature  without  change;  the  more  easily  be- 
cause Regents  Pillsbury  and  Nicols  were  both  mem- 
bers of  the  senate.  It  was  the  hope  and  expecta- 
tion of  the  framer  of  the  bill  that  the  surveys  would 
be  so  closely  connected  with  that  of  the  appropriate 
scientific  departments  of  instruction  as  to  employ 
and   interest   a   large    number   of   students    and    give 


54  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

them  opportunity  for  practice  in  observation  and  re- 
search. It  was  the  pleasure  of  the  board  of  regents 
to  adopt  a  different  policj'.  Professor  Newton  H. 
Winchell  was  engaged  in  the  same  year  as  state 
geologist  and  conducted  the  geological  investiga- 
tions till  1900  when  they  were  suspended,  although  much 
remained  to  be  done.  The  natural  history  opera- 
tions were  delayed  in  starting  and  are  still  in  prog- 
ress. The  geological  survey  has  saved  the  state 
from  much  waste  of  energy  and  money  in  digging 
for  coal  above  the  Carboniferous.  And  it  has  given 
the   University   some   reputation. 

Such  are  some  of  the  services  the  University 
can  render  to  the  State,  and  are  so  many  rea- 
sons why  she  is  boimd  to  interfere  in  its  behalf. 

An  institution  which  undertakes  such  offices 
J\JUST  BE  RICH.  And  here  we  have  an  addi- 
tional claim  upon  the  public.  The  very  vastness 
of  the  concern  exceeds  private  means  and  corpor- 
ate authority.  Harvard  University,  by  far  the 
wealthiest  academic  corporation  in  America,  is 
to-day  asking  her  alumni  to  increase  her  endow- 
ment by  a  sum  sufficient  to  yield  an  additional 
income  of  $250,000. 

Cornell  University,  rich  in  prospect,  is  poor  to- 
day with  an  income  of  about  $75,000.  Michigan 
University  spends  $80,000  a  year.  The  Univer- 
sity of  Berlin  expends  yearly  over  $200,000  in 
gold  upon  a  scale  of  prices  far  below  American 
rates. 

The  revenue  of  Yale  College  is  not  a  small 
one,  and  yet  this  is  what  a  Yale  professor  says 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  55 

in  the  columns  of  the  "New  Englander"  for  April 
1869:  "The  professors  are  not  more  than  half 
])ai(l,  '■''  '-'■'  '■'-  the  salaries  are  not  more  than 
half  sufficient  to  support  a  family  respectably  in 
New  Haven.  '■'  *  *  The  Library  fund  is 
miserably  inadequate  '■'  *  '■'  The  corps  of 
instructors  ought  to  be  doubled.  '■'  '■'  '•'  Yale 
College  is  woefully  poor.  *  *  *  She  has  not 
a  dollar  to  buy  books."     *     *     * 

Such  is  the  financial  condition  of  one  of  our 
oldest,  best-managed,  and  most  popular  American 
colleges.  And  what  is  the  cry  that  comes  up 
from  every  college  large  and  small  in  the  land, 
but  "money  !  money  ! !  money  ! ! !"  The  religious 
press  rings  with  appeals  for  gifts  and  endow- 
ments, alumni  of  colleges  pour  in  large  offerings 
of  love  and  gratitude,  noble  men  and  women 
dying,  bequeath  rich  legacies  to  favorite  institu- 
tions, but  still  the  cry  is  "money,  money,  money !" 

There  is,  as  I  have  said,  but  one  resource.  The 
state  must  endow  the  university,  and  if  the  state 
will  have  the  university  in  its  full  proportions,  let 
her  first  count  the  cost,  and  take  the  million  for 
her  unit. 

"To  take  the  million  for  the  unit"  was  an  auda- 
cious proposition  in  that  day,  but  it  has  been  abund- 
antly justified.  The  payroll  of  the  University  of 
Minnesota  in  IQ08-9  was  $570,000  and  expenses  of 
operation    swelled    the    budget    to    $750,000.      The    an- 


56  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

nual   expenditure   hereafter  will   be   reckoned   by   the 
million. 

If  the  state  endow  the  university  she 
must  needs  control  so  great  a  concern ;  and  such 
control,  if  wisely  conditioned,  is  just  now  one 
of  the  great  needs  of  the  university.  To  proper- 
ly govern  a  great  academic  community,  composed 
of  persons  rather  loosely  connected  with  the  local 
society,  requires  an  authority  greater  than  any 
corporate  body  can  of  itself  confer.  The  stu- 
dents of  the  State  university,  beneficiaries,  should 
be  regarded  as  engaged  in  the  public  service, 
enjoying  the  public  bounty  upon  condition  of, 
and  only  during  good  behaviour.  We  build  re- 
form schools  and  penitentiaries  for  vicious  and 
incorrigible  youth.  The  State  university  will 
have  no  motive  for  retaining  young  persons  of 
evil  example  either  upon  financial  or  social  con- 
siderations. 

The  university  needs  public  authority  to  sanc- 
tion and  dignify  her  degrees,  and  other  certifi- 
cates of  merit.  It  is  not  necessary  to  enter  upon 
a  discussion  of  the  causes  which  of  late  years 
have  brought  college  degrees  into  low  estimation, 
one  may  almost  say,  into  actual  contempt.  The 
fact  is  notorious  and  undeniable.  The  State  uni- 
versity, not  depending  for  her  support  upon  the 
tuition  money  of  her  students,  nor  dreading  the 
censure    of    unsuccessful    candidates    and    their 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  57 

friends,  may  stand  firmly  by  her  rule  of  granting 

NO    DIPLOMA    WHICH    DOES    NOT    MEAN    WHAT    IT 

SAYS.  Let  her  stand  by  this  rule,  and  the  time 
will  come  when  every  graduate  will  write  with 
pride  the  name  of  his  Alma  Mater  after  the 
initials  of  his  degree.  The  diploma  will  be  a 
passport  to  employment  and  social  position,  and 
not,  as  now,  to  be  hid  away  with  the  manuscripts 
of  old  college  themes. 

As  to  the  means  through  which  the  state  will 
exert  her  influence  and  authority,  that  question 
has  already  been  for  us  wisely  decided.  Her  au- 
thority has  been  vested  by  law  in  a  board  of  re- 
sponsible commissioners.  There  is  safety  in  such 
assignment.  The  governing  body  of  a  great  aca- 
demic institution  must  possess  a  degree  of  per- 
manence not  so  necessary  for  a  legislature,  and 
nuist  be  separated  so  far  as  possible  from  the  in- 
fluence and  interference  of  partisan  politics. 

In  the  hands  of  the  Board  of  Regents  is  or 
ought  to  be,  reposed  by  law.  all  the  power  neces- 
sary to  the  execution  of  their  great  trust.  Rut 
since  it  is  clearl\-  impossible  that  such  a  board 
can  remain  in  permanent  session,  attending  con- 
stantly to  the  afifairs  of  the  Institution,  their  au- 
thority must  be  largely  delegated  to  such  persons 
as  are  employed  by  them  to  be  permanently  on 
dut\- ;  that  is,  to  the  president  and  faculty  of  the 
University,  who  being  largely  and  immediately 
responsible  to  the  public  for  its  success  or  fail- 


58  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

lire  must  have  a  control  commensurate  with  their 
responsibihty.  There  will,  therefore,  grow  up  in 
time  a  bod}^  of  statutes  defining  the  duties  and 
powers  of  all  concerned.  Some  powers,  however, 
a  Board  of  Regents  cannot  possibly  delegate.  The 
vitally  important  matter  of  the  finances  must  al- 
ways remain  in  their  hands,  because  the  people 
will  hold  them  and  not  others,  responsible  for  the 
efficient  and  honorable  management  of  the  Uni- 
versity funds. 

The    relation    of   the   university   to   the    state    still 
needs  to   be  better  understood  and  better  adjusted. 
Up    to    near   the    middle    of    the    nineteenth    century 
all   schools  in  America  were  denominational  or  mu- 
nicipal, which  in  some  cases   meant  the  same  thing. 
Horace    Mann's    great    work    in    the    forties    was    to 
teach  his  countrymen  that  the  schooling  of  the  chil- 
dren is  an  imperative  duty  and  function  of  the  state, 
and  the  cost  of  it  a  just  lien  on  all  the  property  of 
the    state.       Long    after    that    the    university    of    the 
state   was   regarded  as  one  of  the   incorporated   col- 
leges  in   the   state   to   hold   its   own   with   them   if  it 
could.      It   is    still    so   regarded   by   many.     But   for 
the    early    established    policy    of    congressional    land 
grants   for   their   endowment   it   is   doubtful   whether 
the  states  would  have  cared   to  incorporate  univer- 
sities.    Minnesota  received  through  a  proceeding  of 
doubtful    merit   a    double   portion,  96,160  acres,   and 
the   expectation   was   that   the   proceeds   would  give 
the  state  a  magnificent  institution. 

To  this  day  the  state  university  is  not  under- 
stood as  clearly  as  it  ought  to  be,  as  the  roof  and 
crown  of  a  complete  system  of  public  education,  and 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  59 

as  an  arm  of  the  state  to  that  end.  Instead  of  being 
the  only  degree-conferring  agency  of  the  state  her 
graduates  have  no  advantage  over  those  of  the  poor- 
est apology  for  a  college.  The  university  diploma 
is  not  a  warrant  for  the  practice  of  medicine  in 
Minnesota.  The  legislature  has  not  yet  so  discred- 
ited the  college  of  law.  This  is  the  state  of  fact 
in  spite  of  Jeflferson's  prophecy  and  the  Indiana 
eonstitution  of  1816.  But  there  is  progress,  and  we 
may  look  for  the  day  when  the  state  university  will 
be  regarded  as  the  crowning  feature  of  an  educa- 
tional system,  and  the  appropriate  agency  of  the 
state  for  all  scientific,  economic,  and  statistical  in- 
quiries needed  by  her. 

Experience  has  as  3'et  suggested  no  better  way  of 
governing  American  universities  than  by  putting 
them  into  commission  to  a  board  of  trustees  or  re- 
gents as  they  are  commonly  called  in  the  west.  And. 
no  better  way  of  making  regents  has  been  found 
tlian  that  of  appointment  by  the  governors  with 
senatorial  confirmation.  If  the  governing  board  of 
the  University  of  Minnesota  has  been  exceptionally 
well  composed,  it  is  due  to  the  excellent  custom  of 
reappointment.  General  Sibley,  a  democrat,  served 
during  the  administrations  of  eight  republican  gov- 
ernors. Governor  Pillsbury  was  on  the  board  from 
1863  till  his  death  in  1902.  It  cannot  be  said  that 
party  politics  had  absolutely  no  part  in  the  ap- 
pointment of  regents,  but  it  maj-  be  said  that  no 
harm  has  as  yet  come  from  that  source  to  the  institution. 
It  is  not  difficult  for  a  governor  to  find  in  the  ranks  of 
his  own  party  men  in  every  way  (|ualifie(l  to  act  as  re- 
gents. There  can  be  no  excuse  for  tlie  selection  of 
unworth}'   and    incapable    persons. 

Xor,  up  to  the  present  time,  has  experience  devel- 
oped   any    better    way    of    conducting    tlio    discipline 


6o  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

of  student  bodies  than  that  of  reposing  it  in  the 
hands  of  a  president  and  faculty,  That  simple  plan 
worked  well  enough  when  colleges  were  small  and 
there  were  no  independent  professional  schools  on 
the  same  campus.  Where  student  deviltries  are  com- 
mitted by  members  of  separate  colleges  no  one  fac- 
ulty can  properly  deal  with  the  offenders.  The  re- 
sort lately  made  to  a  senate  or  council  made  up  of 
delegates  from  the  faculties  of  the  federated  colleges 
gives  promise  of  success.  Fortunately  the  average 
student  requires  no  discipline  except  that  which  re- 
sults from  the  exaction  of  hard  and  steady  work. 
In  the  cases  of  rare  outbreaks  disturbing  the  peace 
of  the  university  town,  there  is  no  reason  why  the 
law  of  the  land  supported  by  adequate  force,  should 
not  operate.  But  the  force  must  be  adequate  and 
intelligently  employed.  When  a  crowd  of  colle- 
gians so  far  outnumber  the  police  as  to  be  able  to 
overcome  them,  take  away  their  arms,  and  tie  them 
up  to  trees,  the  law  of  the  land  becomes  a  farce. 
For  offenses  committed,  as  they  occasionally  will 
be,  within  the  precincts  of  the  university,  the  facultj' 
or  council  tribunal  composed  of  a  large  number  of 
men  busied  with  their  teaching  and  research,  with 
no  taste  for  the  business,  is  a  clumsy  instrument. 
The  plan  of  having  in  a  great  university  a  special 
judge,  with  power  to  take  testimony  under  oath, 
to  punish  for  contempt,  and  to  impose  reasonable 
penalties  prescribed  by  law  is  worthy  of  considera- 
tion. It  is  an  ancient  practice  in  continental  univer- 
sities. No  body  of  persons  should  be  allowed  to 
believe  itself  above  the  law   of  the  land. 

Another  dtity  which  the  regents  cannot  de- 
volve is  the  exceedingly  delicate  one  of  selecting- 
the   instructors.     The   instruction,  be  it   remem- 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  6i 

bered,  is  the  first,  great,  pre-eminent  concern  of 
the  university,  and  that  by  which  it  must  stand  or 
fall.  There  are  reasons  why  the  selection  of  a  uni- 
versity professor  is  a  more  delicate  and  difficult 
task  than  any  other  the  Board  will  be  called  up- 
on to  perform.  The  university  professor  is  no 
drill-master  of  boys,  no  mere  grammarian,  no 
mere  scientific  showman.  He  is  first  of  all  a 
teacher.  He  is  also  a  scholar  and  an  investigator. 
He  is  an  enthusiast  in  his  own  calling,  absolutely 
wedded  to  it,  and  "forsaking  all  others,  will  keep 
himself  only  unto  it."  He  is  no  adventurer,  turn- 
ing his  hand  now  to  this  trick  now  to  that  as  he 
finds  the  one  or  the  other  to  pay  the  better.  In  fact 
he  must  be  a  man  who,  like  Professor  Agassiz, 
"cannot  atTord  to  make  money."  Such  men 
when,  by  good  fortune  they  are  found,  deserve 
a  peculiarly  tender  and  liberal  regard,  such  as 
that  which  Cicero  claimed  for  his  Greek  poet. 
They  are  men  who  prepare  themselves  for  a  kind 
of  work  for  which  the  demand  is  limited  and  pre- 
carious. The  college  professor,  thrown  upon  the 
world,  is  at  a  great  disadvantage  compared  with 
men  whose  days  and  nights  have  not  been  given  to 
books  and  the  pen.  There  will  be  no  duty,  then, 
so  delicate  and  embarrassing  as  the  selection  of 
the  Faculty.  This  duty,  however,  will  grow  light- 
er hereafter,  when  the  ranks  of  the  instructors 
can  be  recruited  from  the  alumni. 


62  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

The  selection  of  the  teachers  of  the  university 
is  the  supreme  duty  of  the  governing  board,  and  one 
which  it  cannot  devolve.  They  will  avail  themselves 
of  the  aid  of  experienced  heads  of  departments,  and 
in  particular  of  the  head  of  the  university.  To  this 
duty  he  should  subordinate  all  others.  After  an 
unhappy  experiment  of  annual  elections  the  regents 
of  this  university  fell  back  on  the  traditional  policy 
of  electing  for  good  behavior.  So  long  as  this  is 
the  general  practice  no  one  institution  can  reject 
it.  Able  men  will  not  enter  the  service  of  an  in- 
stitution which  offers  no  permanence  of  employ- 
ment, and  such  as  it  may  engage  will  be  looking 
for  chances  to  emigrate.  Permanence  of  employ- 
ment, however,  renders  the  original  engagement  of 
professors  the  more  diflicult  and  critical  a  task. 
Aspirants  cannot  object  to  a  reasonable  apprentice- 
ship, and  while  that  is  in  progress  it  should  be  the 
business  of  somebody  to  observe  with  diligence  his 
character,  attainments  and  teaching  ability.  The 
weakest  point  in  university  administration  is  the  ab- 
sence of  "supervision."  Such  are  the  traditions  of 
college  work  that  a  professor  would  resent  as  un- 
warranted espionage  any  visitations  of  the  presi- 
dent to  his  class  room,  and  an  instructor  would  tol- 
erate with  ill  grace  any  attempt  at  inspection  of  his 
work  by  the  head  of  the  department.  The  conse- 
quence is  that  services  are  judged  of  through  all 
sorts  of  indirections,  including  the  reports  of  stu- 
dents. There  ought  to  be  some  way  found  by  which 
an  aspirant  to  a  college  professorship  could  have 
■  his  efficiency  determined  by  competent  and  impar- 
tial   judges. 

After  such  an  apprenticeship  an  election  should 
mean  an  engagement  for  life  or  good  behavior.  The 
rapidly    expanding   custom   of   granting   "retiring   al- 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  63 

lowances"  to  superannuated  professors  furnishes  an- 
other reason  for  extreme  care  in  the  choice  of  uni- 
versity teachers,  whether  the  pensions  come  from 
the  public  funds  or  from  the  generous  benefactions 
of  Mr.  Carnegie.  There  should  be  no  doubt  as  to 
the  worthiness  of  the  recipients.  A  state  has  no 
business  to  own  and  support  a  university  not 
manned  by  the  best  men  she  can  attract  into  her 
service,  and  should  pay  any  compensation  necessary 
to  attract  and  keep.  Fortunately,  honor,  permanence 
of  emploj'ment,  and  generous  treatment,  are  of  more 
account  to  "best  men"  than  dollars,  but  dollars 
should  be  freely  disbursed  when  other  universities 
bid  high   for  experts. 

1  have  spoken  of  the  University  as  she  will  be ; 
as  an  ideal  to  be  realized  long  after  all  who  are 
gathered  here  to-day  shall  have  ceased  from  the 
studies  of  earth  and  passed  to  the  great  examina- 
tion day  above.  Btiilding  for  the  future  we  will 
lay  broad  and  solid  foundations  for  the  structures 
our  posterity  shall  rear.  But  as  we  build  for  the 
present  also,  and  build  in  part,  we  first  will  found 
and  arrange  those  departments  of  the  most  im- 
mediate and  practical  use.  It  will  be  the  part  of 
wisdom  to  teach  first  those  sciences  and  arts  by 
which  wc  may  subdue  the  prairie  and  the  forest, 
bridge  our  great  rivers,  utilize  the  powers  and 
forces  of  nature,  diversify  industry,  and  multiply 
the  kindly  fruits  of  the  earth,  before  we  lavish 
our  means  upon  galleries  of  painting  or  musical 
conservatories.     The   plow,    the   loom,   and    the 


64  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

anvil,  must  precede  the  pencil,  the  chisel,  and  the 
baton. 

I  have  said  the  University  is  catholic,  knowing 
no  favorite  pursuits,  but  welcoming-,  fostering  all. 
But  it  may  happen  that  the  University  may  be 
made  an  almoner  and  trustee  of  funds,  appro- 
priated to  the  cultivation  of  some  special  science, 
or  for  the  benefit  of  a  particular  craft  or  profes- 
sion. Assuming  the  office  of  trustee  she  can  do 
nothing  less  than  execute  sacredly  her  trust.  The 
assignment  by  the  legislature  of  Minnesota  of  the 
funds  which  are  to  accrue  from  the  sale  of  lands 
granted  by  the  general  government  to  endow  in- 
stitutions in  the  interest  of  the  industrial  classes 
to  this  University,  I  suppose  to  constitute  such  a 
trust.  Nothing  I  can  say  here  could  increase  the 
confidence  which  ought  to  be  felt  by  the  people 
and  their  legislators  in  this  governing  body,  made 
up  of  men  not  strangers  to  you,  nor  to  your  State, 
not  without  successful  experience  in  military,  civ- 
il and  business  life  and  not  without  applause  for 
a  sagacious  and  honorable  administration  of  the 
afifairs  of  this  University,  now  first  presenting 
itself  to  the  public. 

There  are  two  things,  however,  which  I  may 
do.  The  one,  to  counsel  to  patience.  Rome  was 
not  built  in  a  day;  nor  can  the  agricultural  and 
mechanical  college,  a  novel  kind  of  academic 
work,  be  brought  to  perfection  in  this  new  State, 
in  any  short  period.     The  other  thing  is  to  re- 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  65 

mind  all  concerned  that  this  magnificent  land 
grant  was  made  not  merely  for  the  technical  in- 
struction of  tlie  industrial  classes,  but  for  their 
liberal  culture;  "IN  ORDER,"  says  the  act.  "to 
promote  the  liberal  and  practical  education  of  the 
industrial  classes."  In  the  light  of  this  fact,  every 
blow  that  has  been  struck  here,  every  stone  that 
has  been  laid  should  be  reckoned  as  in  bona  fide 
fulfillment  of  the  trust.  And  therefore,  this  hon- 
orable Board  of  Regents  might  in  all  sincerity  say 
to  the  farmers  and  artisans  of  Minnesota:  "The 
doors  of  your  University  stand  open  ;  her  instruct- 
ors are  ready  in  their  places ;  send  hither  your 
youth,  and  they  shall  be  taught  those  things  they 
need  to  learn,  without  money  and  without  price." 

I  desire  here  to  allude  to  a  matter  connected 
with  this  subject  which.  I  think,  will  deserve  and 
presently  will  receive  your  attention.  The  act  of 
1862  granting  lands  for  agricultural  colleges  ap- 
portioned them  according  to  the  number  of  sena- 
tors and  representatives  from  each  state  at  that 
time.  Now  the  census  of  1870  will  very  much 
change  the  ratio  of  representation  among  the 
states.  Some  of  the  new  states.  Minnesota  among 
them,  will,  I  suppose,  have  doubled  their  popu- 
lation since  the  census  of  i860.  The  question  then 
arises,  was  not  that  apportionment  an  unequal 
one.  and  unjust  to  the  new  states? 

New  York  State  with  an  area  of  46,000  square 
miles,  takes  990.000  acres.     ^Minnesota  with  her 


66  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

83,000  square  miles  of  territory,  receives  120,000; 
that  is,  Minnesota  having  nearly  double  the  acre- 
age of  Xew  York,  gets  less  than  one-eighth  as 
much  land.  It  is  a  fair  question,  whether  there 
ought  not  to  be  made  an  equalization  of  this  land 
grant  upon  some  fair  basis? 

An  effort  to  remedy  this  open  and  apparent  in- 
equality made  in  the  winter  of  1872  aborted  mainly 
through  the  indifference  of  a  Minnesota  senator, 
then  a  member  of  the  committee  on  public  lands. 

The  story  of  the  "Morrill  bill"  of  1862,  its  origin, 
its  supporters  and  the  influences  which  were  con- 
centrated to  secure  its  passage,  cannot  be  related 
here.  But  attention  may  be  directed  to  the  peculiar 
phraseology  of  section  four. 

"And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  all  moneys  derived 
from  the  sale  of  the  lands  *****  5]-,jjij  j^g  invested  in 
stocks  of  the  United  States  or  of  some  state,  or  some 
other  safe  stocks,  yielding  not  less  than  five  per  centum 
upon  the  par  value  of  said  stocks,  and  that  the  moneys 
so  invested  shall  constitute  a  perpetual  fund,  the  capital 
of  which  shall  remain  forever  undiminished,  *  *  *  *  and 
the  interest  of  which  shall  be  inviolably  appropriated  by 
each  state  *  *  *  to  the  endowment,  support  and 
maintenance  of  at  least  one  college,  where  the  lead- 
ing object  shall  be,  without  excluding  other  scien- 
tific and  classical  studies  (i.  e.,  virtually  including  all 
the  old  college  studies),  and  including  military  tac- 
tics, (a  tub  to  the  military  whale  of  great  dimen- 
sions at  the  time),  to  teach  such  branches  of  learn- 
ing as  are  related  to  agriculture  and  the  mechanic 
arts,  in  such  manner  as  the  legislatures  of  the  states 
may  respectively  prescribe,  in  order  to  promote  the 
liberal   and   practical    education,    (i.    e.    the    complete 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  .     67 

education),  of  the  industrial  classes  (.that's  nearly 
all  of  us),  in  the  several  pursuits  and  professions  of 
life,  (that  is  in  all  honest  and  lawful  vocations)." 
If  the  law  is  literally  followed  every  institution 
created  under  it  should  be  or  aspire  to  be  a  univer- 
sity. It  is  an  open  secret  that  promoters  of  the 
measure  had  in  view  the  endowment  of  certain  uni- 
versities. 

That  was  a  wise  and  proper  action  of  the  legisla- 
ture of  1868  which  united  the  state  agricultural  col- 
lege located  at  Glencoe  with  the  University,  and 
merged  the  endowments.  United  they  have  secured 
the  development  of  one  strong  and  noble  institution. 
Separated,  the  state  would  have  had  on  its  hands 
two  weak  corporations  fighting  each  other  from  year 
to  year  for  appropriations  to  keep  them  alive.  To 
ascertain  what  influences  induced  the  friends  of  the 
agricultural  college  in  ]\IcLeod  County  to  surrender 
their  franchise,  is  an  interesting  problem  in  Minne- 
sota educational   history. 

But  it  is  high  time  I  beg  pardon  of  the  ladies 
who  have  favored  us  with  their  presence  here,  for 
not  having  alkided  to  the  "woman  question"  as 
related  to  the  university.  It  is  one  which  I  knew 
a  great  deal  more  about  ten  years  ago  or  thought 
I  did.  than  I  dare  say  now.  The  co-education 
question,  however,  is  one  which  must  be  met  and 
solved.  Presuming  that  the  people  of  Miimc- 
sota  mean  that  there  shall  be  an  University  here, 
not  in  name  only,  but  in  fact.  I  see  that  some  of 
the  difficulties  attending  the  management  of 
mixed  schools  do  not  here  present  themselves. 
Such  difficulties  accumulate  not  in  the  assemblv 


68  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

hall  and  recitation  room,  but  in  the  boarding 
house;  and  their  number  and  magnitude  seem  to 
depend  very  much  upon  circumstances  of  place, 
and  the  age  and  condition  of  the  pupils. 

The  Superintendent  of  Public  schools  in  San 
Francisco  reports  decided  advantages  resulting 
from  the  late  complete  separation  of  the  sexes 
in  the  schools  of  that  city.  On  the  other  hand 
we  have  in  the  country  at  least  one  institution 
that  for  twenty  years  or  more  has  been  steadily 
doing  the  thing  which  so  many  wise  and  cunning 
educators  have  argued  could  not  be  done.  I 
mean  Oberlin  College,  within  whose  walls  are 
gathered  to-day  nearly  1200  youths  of  both  sexes 
and  various  ages.  President  Fairchild  declared 
lately  in  a  public  address  before  a  convention  of 
teachers,  that  the  first  case  of  a  scandalous  na- 
ture had  yet  to  occur  in  that  institution. 

Such  conflicting  examples  clearly  indicate  that 
no  solution  of  the  troublesome  problem  has  yet 
been  reached  which  all  can  acquiesce  in,  and  which 
reaches  all  latitudes  and  longitudes.  We  shall  be 
wise,  if  watching  closely  the  signs  of  the  times, 
and  the  demands  made  upon  us  by  the  people, 
we  wait  patiently,  working  the  while  faithfully, 
for  a  system  to  grow  from  our  soil,  native  to  our 
own  skies. 

There  is,  however,  this  consideration  worthy 
perhaps  of  notice  here.  The  University  is  not 
founded  nor  operated  in  the  interest  of  any  class 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  69 

of  men,  nor  of  any  one  art.  It  exists  for  the  ben- 
efit of  society,  not  merely  for  that  of  individuals, 
whether  male  or  female.  It  knows  not  male  nor 
female,  "Barbarian,  Scythian,  bond  nor  free."  The 
doors  of  its  auditoria,  its  laboratories,  its  library, 
stand  open  to  all  worthy  comers  ;  that  is  to  all 
persons  of  good  fame,  who  prove  themselves  com- 
petent to  hear  and  receive  its  lessons.  Neither  sex, 
then,  nor  craft  or  condition  may  with  justice  de- 
mand of  her  special  privileges. 

So  said  the  speaker  at  a  time  when  his  only  ex- 
perience of  the  mixed  education  had  been  in  the 
academy  field. 

After  forty  years  of  instructing  mi.xed  classes  of 
men  and  women,  he  is  as  little  disposed  to  dogma- 
tize. He  has  nothing  but  warm  praise  for  the  htm- 
dreds  of  earnest,  industrious,  level-headed  young 
women  who  have  taken  his  courses.  It  has  been  a 
delight  to  instruct  them.  One  thing  is  beyond  ques- 
tion: university  privileges  cannot  be  denied  to  wom- 
en. They  have  proven  their  capacitj^  to  do  all  man- 
ner of  college  work  well.  They  have,  therefore, 
the  same  right  to  it  as  have  men.  The  state  must 
maintain  one  university  for  both  men  and  women, 
or  separate  ones  for  the  sexes.  The  experiment  of 
one  fur  both  will  continue.  .At  the  present  time 
there  is  a  decided  drift  towards  the  establishment  of 
dormitories,  rest  and  study  rooms,  and  restaurants 
for  the  exclusive  use   of  women. 

Experience  has  proven  that  men  and  women  stu- 
dents can  associate  freely  without  danger.  The 
number  of  matrimonial  alliances  im"tiated  in  col- 
leges is  surprisingly  small. 


70  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

Were  we  now  to  sum  up  and  conclude  by  say- 
ing, let  all  these  things  be,  and  be  done,  and  the 
university  is  secure,  we  should  be  saying  very 
much  less  than  is  necessary.  Costly  and  magnifi- 
cent buildings,  princely  library,  a  vast  museum, 
an  unrivalled  equipment  of  apparatus,  labora- 
tories, observatories,  workshops,  nurseries, 
orchards,  fish-ponds,  farms,  and  gardens, 
build,  gather  and  stock  them  all  upon  a  scale 
of  imperial  lavishness,  and  you  might  not  have 
a  successful  University.  You  might  concentrate 
here  the  profoundest  learning,  the  rarest  elo- 
quence, the  acutest  dialectics  of  the  civilized 
world,  and  yet  be  as  far  from  it.  There  are 
needed  eyes  to  see,  and  ears  to  hear,  hands  to 
work  and  brains  to  think.  Any  account  of  the 
University  which  leaves  its  undergraduate  stu- 
dents out,  is  a  very  beggarly  account.  Indeed, 
undertaking  to  teach  all  those  things  which  its 
students  desire  to  learn,  it  will  inevitably  take  on 
its  character,  to  some  extent,  from  them.  If  they 
come  here  with  mere  empirical,  catch-penny  no- 
tions, desiring  only  to  carry  away,  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible, diplomas  which  will  license  them  to  prey 
upon  the  bodies,  souls,  and  property  of  their  fel- 
low men.  the  University  will  very  soon  become 
a  mere  curiosity  shop  and  scientific  limbo ;  good 
learning  will  desert  her;  true  teachers  and  schol- 
ars will  give  way  to  the  dominion  of  quacks  and 
charlatans.     Rut  let  the  young  people  who  shall 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  71 

come  up  here,  bring  true  hearts  and  wining 
hands,  resolved  to  "scorn  dcHghts  and  Hvc  labo- 
rious days" ;  a  generous  desire  to  get,  along  with 
useful  knowledge,  what  is  better  than  knowledge, 
wisdom ;  a  fervent  wish  to  be  good  and  do  right 
in  their  da}'  and  generation  :  let  them  rightly  val- 
ue that  wise  and  liberal  foresight  wliich  has  made 
learning  as  free  as  air  to  them ;  then  the  Univer- 
sity can  live  and  flourish,  and  rise  steadily  and 
surely  upw^ard  toward  the  lofty  seat  upon  which 
she  must  finally  rest. 

Young  friends,  students  of  this  L'niversity,  you 
hold  in  a  manner,  its  fate  in  your  hands.  Your 
faithfulness,  your  zeal  and  diligence,  your  hon- 
est toil  for  what  is  real  wealth,  will  give  us  a 
good  name,  and  fame  which  will  call  hundreds 
of  others  to  take  their  places  by  your  sides,  and 
will  encourage,  yes,  even  compel,  those  in  author- 
ity to  add  to  our  means  of  instruction  and  your 
opportunities  for  learning. 

On  the  other  hand,  idleness,  insubordination, 
even  mere  forgetfulness  without  malice,  might 
sink  us  to  a  position  of  contempt,  and  compel  us 
to  disband  and  retire  from  these  halls  in  dis- 
grace. And  what  is  more,  you  are  trustees  and 
representatives  of  the  youth  of  Minnesota  for 
all  time  to  come,  and  yours  will  be  the  blame,  if 
through  any  fault  of  yours  they  shall  be  de- 
prived of  those  their  rights  now  in  your  trust. 
Do  not  wonder,  then,  that  vour  instructors  often 


72  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

exhort  you  to  diligence,  and  command  your 
obedience,  knowing  as  they  do,  that  by  your  do- 
ings or  misdoings  their  work  and  influence  are  to 
be  reckoned.  Then  do  not  think  yourselves  of 
small  account,  since  they  do  not.  Wear  proud- 
ly, young  gentlemen,  the  University  gray,  and  re- 
member that  wherever  you  wear  it  you  represent 
the  University  corps.  See  to  it,  each  one,  that  you 
bring  no  shame  upon  it. 

The  exhortation  was  not  needed.  The  speaker 
had  not  lived  in  the  west,  and  come  to  know  the 
burning-  desire  of  the  young  men  and  women  for 
good  learning,  their  willingness  and  power  to  work, 
and   their  aspiration  towards  noble  characters. 

But  the  youth  who  shall  in  future  by  scores 
and  hundreds  resort  hither,  whence  shall  they  de- 
rive such  noble  manners,  such  lofty  zeal.'' 
Whence,  but  from  the  hearts  and  homes  of  the 
land?  There  can  be  no  University  worthy  the 
name,  without  the  interest,  and  co-operation  of 
the  people  of  this  state.  It  will  be  vain  that  they 
vote  the  millions  of  money  that  will  be  needed 
to  fully  organize  and  furnish  an  American  Uni- 
versity, if  they  withold  their  constant  watchful- 
ness and  unfailing  devotion. 

And  here,  if  anywhere  outside  our  own  walls, 
there  will  be  lack.  We  are  all  so  busy  with  farms 
and  our  merchandize,  we  so  dote  upon  our  great 
mills,   factories,  and  warehouses,  we  are  so  en- 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  n 

grossed  with  cent  per  cent,  and  the  fluctuations 
of  the  exchange ;  we  fall  down  and  worship  so 
many  ''gods  of  gold  and  of  silver,  of  brass,  of 
iron,  of  wood  and  of  stone,"'  that  we  forget  the 
higher  life  of  men  and  of  society,  swamping  the 
nobler  duties  and  opportunities  of  the  spiritual 
existence  in  a  swelling  sea  of  earthly  troubles 
and  triumphs.  The  State  of  Minnesota  has,  or 
will  have,  a  magnificent  endow'ment  for  her  com- 
mon schools ;  but  let  her  not  trust  to  the  balances 
in  her  treasury  to  give  her  such  schools  as  she 
needs  and  may  have,  and  which  if  the  people  will 
have  them  they  must  create  them,  breathing  the 
very  breath  of  life  into  them.  They  may  not  rely 
upon  some  beneficent  monarch,  by  the  grace  of 
God  their  born  ruler,  to  bestow  upon  them  ready- 
made,  the  means  and  machinery  of  education. 
They  must  themselves  personally  and  collectively 
interfere  and  co-operate.  But  they  will  trust 
vainly  to  their  princely  school  fund,  if  they  go 
to  sleep,  leaving  demagogues,  "tinkers,  rowdies 
and  snobs"  to  manipulate  it,  and  they  may  curse 
the  day  it  came  to  them.  Eternal  vigilance  is  the 
price  not  of  liberty  alone,  but  of  all  the  blessing's 
which  flourish  beneath  and  around  it.  The  peo- 
ple, then,  must  build,  endow,  and  forever  sustain 
by  their  una1)ating  care  the  University ;  and  it 
would  seem  that  a  ])eoi)le  forever  free  from  any 
heavy  burden  of  taxation  for  the  support  of  ele- 
mentary schools,  were  in  a  peculiar  manner  and 


74  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

degree  bound  to  foster  and  develop  those  insti- 
tutions for  higlier  education,  so  necessary  to  stim- 
ulate and  supplement  them.  The  existence  of 
this  great  endowment  can  never  form  any  just 
excuse  to  cease  from  their  interest  in,  and  their 
contributions  to  good  learning,  but  furnishes  the 
best  argument  why,  leaving  the  foundation  so 
broadly  and  generously  laid,  they  should  go  on 
to  perfect  the  structures  based  upon  it.  I  think 
it  safe  to  say  that  no  political  community  in  the 
world  ever  held  such  vantage  ground  as  that 
occupied  by  the  State  of  Minnesota  to-day.  Up- 
on a  clean  sheet  she  can  write  a  few  words,  which 
will  give  her  within  the  lifetime  of  these  youth 
here,  a  system  of  schools  such  as  the  world  has 
never  seen.  I  can  tell  you  what  these  words  are : 
"divide  your  resources  for  primary  education, 
combine  them  for  higher  education." 

The  words  of  Dr.  Andrew  D.  White,  then  presi- 
dent of  Cornell   University. 

Carry  the  common  school  to  every  village  and 
cross  road,  to  reach  and  illuminate  every  house- 
hold in  the  land.  Build  some  high  schools,  and 
academies  (colleges,  as  I  have  called  them.)  but 
not  too  many.  Found  but  one  university,  for 
it  is  not  the  uni-versity  unless  it  be  one. 

You  have  your  choice  as  yet  between  the  one, 
great,  rich,  free,  populous,  cosmopolitan  univer- 
sity which  shall  be  your  chief  pride  and  joy,  and 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS  75 

the  dozen  or  more  petty,  starveling-,  ill-appointed 
affairs,  in  which  as  a  people  you  will  have  no 
common  interest.  And  you  can  take  your  choice 
between  educating  your  artisans  and  profession- 
al men  here,  on  your  own  soil,  and  sending  them 
to  Yale,  to  Har\-ard,  to  Ann  Arbor  or  Madi- 
son ;  for  depend  upon  it,  whatever  you  may  think 
about  it.  the  young  men  and  women  are  going 
where  the  brains  are.  and  the  means  of  instruc- 
tion, fullest  and  freest. 

The  increase  of  attendance  from  fourteen  provi- 
sional freshmen  in  the  fall  of  i86g  to  1,152  in  1909 
is  good  proof  that  the  university  has  won  its  way  to 
the  hearts  of  the  people. 

The  Universit}'.  then,  is  not  merely  from  the 
people,  but  for  the  people.  True  it  will  put 
bread  into  no  man's  mouth  directly,  nor  money 
in  his  palm.  Neither  the  rains  nor  the  sunshine 
do  that,  but  they  warm  and  nourish  the  spring- 
ing grass,  and  ripen  the  harvest.  So  higher  edu- 
cation, generous  culture,  scholarship,  literature, 
inform,  inspire,  and  elevate  comnumities.  Alin- 
nesota  will  become  a  great  and  rich  common- 
wealth. Her  rare,  bracing,  salubrious,  but  not 
too  genial  climate  is  bringing  here  a  population 
of  men  who  expect  to  work  for  their  living.  Shut 
u])  in-doors  during  the  long,  though  not  dreary 
winters,  in  workshops  and  around  firesides,  out 
people  must  by  and  by  become  thoughtful,  seri- 
ous, studious,  inventive.       And  though  the  own- 


76  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

ers  of  your  soil,  and  the  forests,  the  proprietors 
of  your  railroads  and  factories  will  gather  im- 
perial fortunes,  there  will  be  yet  richer  men ;  rich 
poor  men,  who  landless  and  moneyless,  will  win 
for  you  new  victories  over  nature,  delight  and  in- 
struct you  with  the  products  of  genius,  and  whose 
names  will  be  the  proud  heritage  of  future  gen- 
erations long  after  Dives  and  his  palaces  mingle 
in  undistinguished  dust.  I  mean  no  sentimental 
depreciation  of  material  prosperity.  Wealth  is 
the  inevitable  portion  of  diligence  and  virtue.  On- 
ly let  men  who  grow  rich  in  worldly  gear,  not 
forget  to  grow  "rich  toward  God."  We  found 
the  American  University,  with  a  double  purpose ; 
the  increase  of  material  wealth  and  comfort,  and 
the  culture  and  satisfaction  of  the  spirit.  Let 
that  double  object,  as  summed  up  by  the  Psalm- 
ist of  old  be  the  one  glorious  end  of  our  efforts 
and  our  prayers : 

"That  our  sons  may  grow  up  as  the  young 
plants,  and  that  our  daughters  may  be  as  the 
polished  corners  of  the^ temple; 

That  our  garners  may  be  full  of  all  manner  of 
store ;  that  our  sheep  may  bring  forth  thousands, 
and  ten  thousand  in  our  streets ; 

That  our  oxen  may  be  strong  to  labour;  that 
there  may  be  no  decay,  no  leading  into  captivity 
and  no  complaining  in   our  streets ; 

Happy  are  the  people  who  are  in  such  a  case. 
yea  blessed  are  the  people  who  have  the  Lord  for 
their  God." 


II.    THE  MINNESOTA  PLAN 

The  National  Educational  Association  held  its  an- 
nual convention  for  1875  in  Minneapolis,  Minneso- 
ta. The  President  for  the  year  was  William  T. 
Harris,  known  to  all  American  teachers.  The  fol- 
lowing, one  of  the  principal  addresses,  was  deliv- 
ered before  the  full  convention,  in  the  Academj-  of 
Music,  on  the  evening  of  August  4.  by  the  author 
of  this  book. 

In  the  course  of  a  few  months  the  nation  cele- 
brates the  centennial  anniversary  of  her  birthday. 
Small  account  will  be  made  by  those  who  par- 
ticipate, of  the  mere'  fact  that  the  nation  has 
survived  the  vicissitudes  of  a  hundred  years. 
While  we  shall  point  with  honest  pride  to  the  de- 
velopments and  achievements  of  the  century,  still 
the  thought  uppermost  in  all  minds  will  be  that 
we  are  really  celebrating  the  triumph  of  a  prin- 
ciple— the  principle  of  free  government — "a  gov- 
ernment of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  peo- 
ple." This  is  the  fact,  of  which  we  wish  to 
remind  ourselves,  and  which  we  advertise  to  the 
world  by  our  great  exposition  and  its  accompani- 
ments. 

That  a  whole  people  may  undertake  to  organ- 
ize and  operate  a  government  is  no  longer  an 
open    question. 


78  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

Now  the  object  of  a  government  is  commonly 
thought  of  as  negative — "to  protect  persons  and 
property" — to    repel    the    aggressions    of    iiostiie 
communities — to    prevent    assault,    plunder    and 
anarchy  among  the  citizens ; — and  with  these, — 
in  the  opinion  of  many  publicists  the  public  ac- 
tivity ought  to  cease.     When  organized   society 
has  chained  the  human  tiger,  clipped  the  wings 
of  the  human  vulture,  and  drawn  the   fangs  of 
the   human   serpent,   her  function    ceases.     This 
doctrine — the    "laissc^:   alter"    doctrine — has    had 
numerous  advocates  in  this  country,  at  times  ap- 
pearing in  powerful  organized  masses.     By  these 
the  wuse  old  maxim,  "That  government  is  best 
which  governs  the  least,"  has  been  sadly  wrenched 
from  its  true  meaning  and  application.     Confess- 
edly true  of  government  as  a  negative,  restrain- 
ing, repressive  agent,  it  has  no  necessary  appli- 
cation   to   government   as    a   positive,   beneficent 
agent.     Because  it  is  admitted  that  there  should 
be  the  least  possible  hanging,  imprisonment,  fines 
and  taxes,  it  cannot  be  claimed  that  the  people 
sliall  not  in  some  public  and  organized  wa)^  have 
certain    necessary    and    beneficent    things    done. 
This  confusion  is  due,  in  my  opinion,  to  the  fact 
that  although  we  have  been  living  under  a  free 
government   for    many   generations,   most  of  us 
liave  not  entirely  outgrown  that  idea  of  govern- 
ment which   has   come   down   from   ancient  and 
mediaeval  times.  \\'e  have  not  succeeded  in  entire- 


THE   MINNESOTA    PLAN  79 

ly  disconnecting  the  conception  of  a  government 
from  that  of  a  dynast}-  divinely  commissioned  to 
take  care  of  people. 

The   American    people    acknowledge   no   scep- 
tred monarch  divinely  appointed  to  rule,  but  in 
a  certain  large  sense  are  themselves  the  govern- 
ment,   acting   through    chosen    men    as    agents. 
The  government,   in  the  stricter  sense,  may  be 
called  the  people's  agency.     We  have  and  use  a 
variety  of  such  agencies,  according  as  the  busi- 
ness     is      national,      provincial     or      municipal. 
W  e  do  not  use  them  merely  in  a  negative  way 
to    repress    disorders    and    punish    malefactors. 
We  employ  one  of  them  to  carry  our  letters,  a 
very  positive  function.     We  expend  large  sums 
of  money  upon  public  works.     We  support  the 
patent  office  at  great  cost  to  the  tax-payers.    We 
send  out  expeditions  to  discover  and  explore  new 
lands.     We  pay  some  hundreds  of  thousands  to 
observe  the  transit  of  X^enus.    We  employ  a  small 
army  of  men  to  watch  the  weather.     I  doubt  if 
;u!y  sane  man  would  say  of  any  of  these  agencies, 
tl'iat  the  less  they  did  the   better  they  were,  or 
referring  to  such  functions  would  quote  the  max- 
im, "That  government  is  best  which  governs  tiie 
least." 

As  a  matter  of  fact  we  see  government  exer- 
cising positive  and  beneficent  functions,  i.  e.,  we 
.see   the   people  in  their  public,  organized,   legal 


8o  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

capacity,  sci'fi)ig  themselves.     I  think  we  must 
admit  their  right  so  to  do. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  the  present  purpose  to 
enter  into  an  exhaustive  discussion  of  the  hmita- 
tions  and  conditions  of  this  positive  form  of  pub- 
He  activity.  There  will  be  no  difference  of  opin- 
ion as  to  the  chief  criteria  by  which  we  are  to 
separate  public  and  private  functions. 

If  there  be  a  certain  business  or  interest  of  uni- 
versal concern, — one  which  pertains  to  the  whole 
people — one  which  private  hands  and  means  can- 
not manage  and  compass — one  which  in  some 
sense  and  degree  is  essential  to  the  public  well- 
being, — such  a  business,  all  will  admit,  must  be 
public. 

Education  the  Chief  Function. 

Now,  education  is,  in  our  times,  such  a  busi- 
ness. Peoples  no  longer  exist  for  dynasties. 
War  is  no  longer  the  chief  occupation  of  men 
and  nations.  Civilization  exists,  and  the  chief 
business  of  civilized  men  is — culture.  To  make 
the  most  of  the  human  powers,  spiritual  and 
physical,  and  to  develop  them  harmoniously, — 
to  extend  the  boundaries  of  knowledge, — to  har- 
ness and  tame  the  wild  forces  of  nature,  and  to 
employ  them  beneficently, — it  is  for  these  things 
that  men  and  states  exist.  All  other  employments 
are  mere  foraging  and  housekeeping.  Educa- 
tion, then,  in  its  noble  and  comprehensive  sense — 
is  what  we  are  living  for.     It  is  the  chief  con- 


THE    MIXXESOTA    PLAN  8i 

cern  of  each  and  of  all.  As  mere  police  is  the 
great  negative  function  of  the  public  activity,  ed- 
ucation must  be  the  foremost  positive  function ; 
and  as  the  destiny  of  men  is  higher  than  that  of 
states,  so  is  it  more  noble  for  the  people  to  or- 
ganize culture,  than  merely  to  organize  tax-gath- 
erers and  constables.  AA'e  call  the  whole  world 
to  witness  the  spectacle  of  a  people  governing 
themselves.  When  shall  we  challenge  the  na- 
tions to  the  grander  spectacle  of  a  whole  peo- 
ple educating  themselves? 

Not  that  we  are  unfamiliar  with  the  idea  of 
educating  the  whole  people.  We  have  the  ex- 
ample of  several  foreign  states  attempting  the 
schooling  of  the  whole  body  of  children  and 
youth.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that,  though 
done  for  the  people,  it  has  not  been  done  by  the 
people.  Prussia  imposes  her  school  system  upon 
her  people,  just  as  she  imposes  upon  them  her 
militarv  system.  We  must  rise  above  this  idea 
in  America.  We  have  no  superior  classes  di- 
vinely commissioned  to  guide  and  instruct  their 
fellow  citizens.  We  must  rise  to  the  nobler  con- 
ception of  the  whole  people  educating  themselves, 
not  as  a  work  of  necessity  nor  of  charity,  but 
as  the  natural,  legitimate  and  rational  business 
of  civilized  men. 

The  argument  for  the  general  welfare  function 
of  government  is  less  needed  at  the  present  day, 
when  the  great  political  parties  are  vying  with   one 


82  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

another    in   promising   good   things   to   be    done    by 
the  government  for   the    people. 

In  my  opinion  the  advocates  of  public  educa- 
tion have  habitually  taken  low  and  insecure 
ground.  The  stock  argument  in  behalf  of  public 
schools  has  constantly  been,  "The  State  must  ed- 
ucate, because  intelligence  is  essential  to  the  ex- 
istence of  the  State."  This  is  an  argument  of 
despair  and  abnegation.  The  public  activity  is 
only  called  in  to  supplement,  to  help  out,  to  res- 
cue. Its  justification  is  really  "extra-constitu- 
tional." 

The  argument  is  vicious  for  at  least  two  rea- 
sons. (I.)  It  is  a  iioii  seqiiifiir.  Granted  that 
intelligence  on  the  part  of  the  citizen  is  essential 
to  the  existence  of  the  State,  it  does  not  follow 
that  schooling  is.  Intelligence  does  not  flow 
from  school  houses  only, — any  more  than  men 
live  by  bread  alone.  It  is  not  at  all  difficult  to 
conceive  of  a  community  in  which  children 
should  be  so  w^ell  instructed  in  the  family,  that 
the  schoolmaster  would  have  no  occupation. 
There  are  many  who  claim,  with  much  plausi- 
bility, that  it  is  less  necessary  either  to  the  public 
being  or  well-being  that  children  be  taught  the 
arts  of  reading,  writing  or  reckoning  than  that 
they  be  instructed  in  a  creed  and  a  catechism. 

(2.)  The  argument  is  defective;  in  that  the 
opposers  may  insist,  as  they  often  do,  that  the 
public  interest  has  been  sectired  when  a  certain 


THE    MIXXESOTA    PLAN  S3 

minimum  of  rudimentary  arts  has  been  taught. 
Upon  such  a  foundation,  all  public  schooling- 
above  the  common  school  is  without  justification. 
How  often  do  we  hear  this  plea  put  in,  when 
public  aid  is  asked  to  i)romote  the  higher  educa- 
tion. This  middle  term  '"intelligence,"  in  our 
popular  educational  syllogism  is  "undistributed," 
and  so  plays  fast  and  loose  with  us.  Some  in- 
telligence or  some  kind  of  intelligence  is  wliat 
it  stands  for.  The  line  between  that  which  is 
essential  and  unessential  is  now  here,  now  there. 
Xo  two  observers  can  agree  upon  it.  Of  such  a 
plea,  a  lawyer  would  say  "it  is  void  for  uncer- 
tainty." 

This  argument  of  State  necessity  for  public 
education  must  at  length  be  abandoned.  It  was 
never  anything  but  an  apology.  It  has  perhaps 
served  a  good  purpose,  as  the  temporary  defen- 
sive outwork  of  a  beleagured  cause,  as  yet  too 
weak  and  timid  to  take  the  open  field.  It  is 
time  to  advance  from  this  insecure  retreat  to  a 
bolder  and  stronger  position.  Such  a  one  I 
think  we  assume  when  we  take  the  ground  al- 
ready reconnoitered  : — (  i.)  That  education  must 
be  pubHc,  because  culture  is  the  chief  and  para- 
mount business  and  interest  of  civilized  men : 
(2.)  That  the  education  of  the  whole  people  is  so 
great  and  so  costly,  that  only  the  public  resources 
can  compass  it;  and  (3.")  That  the  agencies  to 
be  employed  are  so  vast  and   multifarious   that 


84  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

they  can  only  be  organized  by  the  supreme  au- 
thority. 

This  is  no  plea  of  justifiable  homicide  on  the 
part  of  the  state  for  slaughtering  the  monster, 
Ignorance.  The  whole  matter  is  removed  from 
the  forum  of  police  to  that  of  statesmanship. 

According  to  this  principle,  no  arbitrary  limit 
can  be  set  to  the  public  interference  in  education. 
None  can  say  to  the  people,  "you  may  have  your 
common  schools,  but  nothing  beyond  them."  As 
the  field  is  one  and  the  cause  one,  there  can  be 
but  one  system,  and  that  must  be  unbroken,  con- 
tinuous, all-containing.  Education  is  the  con- 
cern of  all.  No  party,  sect,  clique,  order  or  pro- 
fession of  men,  may  lawfully  claim  exclusive 
direction  of  it.  The  watchword  and  motto  is, 
"education  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the 
people."  If  this  principle  be  sound,  the  high 
school  and  the  university  take  their  place 'in  the 
system  of  public  culture,  of  right  and  not  by 
sufferance.  The  education  of  the  unfortunate 
classes,  the  deaf  and  dumb,  the  blind  and  the  idiot 
can  no  longer  be  regarded  as  a  matter  of  charity, 
but  as  the  legitimate  duty  of  the  people.  The 
sooner  we  disuse  and  repudiate  the  self-righteous 
designation  of  "Charitable  Institutions."  the  bet- 
ter. That  education  is  merely  a  part  of  our  busi- 
ness ;  it  is  not  a  charity. 

It  is  necessary  to  emphasize  the  most  obvious 
inference  from  the  preceding  discussion :  that  the 


THE   MINNESOTA    PLAN  85 

whole  educational  work  must  be  authorized  by 
the  supreme  authority, — that  is,  by  the  people 
acting  through  the  ordinary  channels,  or  through 
new  ones  to  be  created  for  the  purpose.  In  some 
states  already  the  people  have  provided  them- 
selves with  a  special  machinery  for  the  work  of 
public  instruction  ;  that  is  to  say,  they  have  or- 
ganized a  "government"  or  administration  for 
that  purpose.  As  a  general  rule,  however,  this 
administration  is  confined  to  the  common  school 
instruction,  although  there  are  states  in  which 
the  higher  education  has  been  recognized,  and 
partially  provided  for  by  the  establishment  of 
state  universities.  But  no  state  has  as  yet  com- 
pletely organized  education  by  providing  for  all 
grades  of  instruction.  Some  beginnings  have, 
however,  been  made  which  will  lead  inevitably 
and  irresistibly  to  this  consummation.  Within  a 
few  days,  the  constitutional  convention  of  a 
neighboring  state  (Nebraska),  has  been  discuss- 
ing a  project  for  organizing  the  whole  education 
of  its  people  by  forming  a  State  Board  of  Edu- 
cation, with  local  auxiliaries,  and  placing  in  its 
control  not  merely  the  common  schools,  Init  the 
high  schools  and  the  university. 

The  address  was  severely  criticized  by  President 
Magoun  of  Iowa  College,  in  the  Chicago  .\dvance. 
His  contention  was  tliat  the  state  has  no  concern 
with  education  above  that  of  the  common  school. 


86  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

Education  Must  Be  Organized. 

The  organization  of  education,  I  believe  to  be 
the  paramount  educational  problem  in  America. 
Whatever  merits  our  schools  and  school  systems 
may  have,  in  regard  to  organization  we  are  far 
behind  many  less  favored  nations.  France,  Ger- 
many, Switzerland,  Sweden,  Italy  even,  have 
organized  their  education.  England  has  not 
done  it,  for  reasons  the  same  in  substance  as 
th-ose  which  have  kept  our  own  states  from  at- 
tempting it.  Unable  to  wholly  disabuse  our 
minds  of  the  conception  of  government  as  pater- 
nal and  hereditary,  both  Englishmen  and  Amer- 
icans resent  the  interference  of  the  public  in  what 
they  have  been  accustomed  to  consider  strictly 
private  affairs.  This  feeling  has  been  strength- 
ened, though  not  justified,  by  the  claims  of  nu- 
merous religious  bodies ;  some  to  exclusive  con- 
trol of  the  whole  educational  work,  some  to  a 
part  of  it. 

For  this  lack  in  organization  no  one  is 
to  be  blamed.  We  are  rather  to  be  grateful  that 
so  much  has  already  been  done.  When  the  Eng- 
lish colonists  founded  in  New  England  the  com- 
mon school,  they  began  a  work  which  it  is  ours 
to  carry  on  to  perfection.  "They  builded  better 
than  they  knew."  To  have  anticipated,  however 
dimly,  the  idea  of  universal  public  education,  was 
perhaps  their  most  glorious  service.  The  com- 
mon school  system,  in  its  substance,  no  longer 


THE    MIXXESOTA    PLAN  87 

needs  defenders  anywhere.  It  is  when  we  turn 
to  the  higher  education  that  we  find  confusion 
and  disorganization.  This  field  has  been  stead- 
fastly claimed  by  religious  bodies  as  their  ap- 
propriate sphere  of  educational  activity.  The 
determining  motive  for  maintaining  the  denom- 
inational college  has  always  been  the  training 
of  ministers  to  propagate  the  particular  faith 
and  doctrine  of  the  denomination.  As  denomina- 
tions have  multiplied  and  extended,  their  col- 
leges have  multiplied,  not  only  beyond  the  needs 
of  the  bodies  which  have  established  them,  but 
far  beyond  the  needs  of  the  country.  Excessive 
in  number,  scantily  equipped,  and  indifferently 
manned,  these  institutions  are,  in  the  language 
of  President  Porter,  "wasting  the  most  precious 
resources  of  the  country."  While  saying  this  let 
us  not  fail  to  recall  with  grateful  admiration  the 
heroic,  and  unselfish,  but  still  misdirected  efforts 
of  the  men  who  have  built  up  these  colleges,  and 
who  are  now  literally  laying  down  their  lives  to 
maintain    them. 

I  have  not  one  unkind  word  for  them  nor  for 
their  work,  but  it  is  for  the  interest  of  all,  that 
things  be  seen  as  they  are,  and  that  the  signs  of 
the  times  be  read  aright  by  all.  The  only  charge 
'  which  it  is  necessary  here  to  urge  against  the 
multiplication  of  small  colleges  is  this,  that  they 
stand  in  the  way  of  the  development  of  the  sec- 
ondary  education.     It   is   safe,   I   think,   to  say 


88  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

that  there  are  in  some  states  more  colleges  than 
there  are  efficient  preparatory,  or  fitting  schools. 
For  this  the  small  colleges  are  responsible  The 
secondary  education  is  consequently  in  a  rudi- 
mentary condition  in  America.  It  is  time  that  it 
be  developed  to  its  full  proportions  and  assigned 
to  its  appropriate  position.  We  have  recognized 
and  provided  for  the  "operatives'  education," 
and  the  "gentleman's  education."  We  need  a 
third  education  for  that  immense  body  of  the 
people  who  can  get  beyond  the  common  school, 
but  cannot  get  to  the  college. 

The  term  "secondary  education"  was  then  rarely 
heard  or  used.  Rightly  employed  it  relates  back 
to  the  primary  education.  The  "secondary  school" 
seconds,  that  is,  follows  the  primary  school.  Col- 
lege preparation  has  become  an  incidental  duty. 

It  is  not  merely  to  fit  a  few  young  men  for 
college  that  the  secondary  schools  are  needed, 
although  happily  this  work  falls  in  with  the  other 
and  greater  business  of  educating,  in  a  practical 
way,  the  men  and  women  who  direct  the  work 
of  the  world.  It  is  no  longer  a  small  number  of 
}'Oung  men  preparing  for  the  learned  professions 
who  demand  this  secondary  training,  but  a  vast 
body  of  people,  till  lately  unknown  to  educators. 
The  common  school  education  no  longer  suffices 
for  the  farmer,  the  artisan,  the  engineer,  the 
miner,   the   navigator,   the   merchant,   though  it 


THE   MINNESOTA   PLAN  89 

may  answer,  in  the  opinion  of  gentlemen  who 
operate  the  law  and  medical  colleges,  for  per- 
sons entering  those  ''learned  professions."  The 
secondary  schools  must,  therefore,  have  their 
legitimate  place  and  work,  and  not  merely  exist 
as  preparatory  schools  to  colleges.  1  have  blamed 
the  supporters  of  the  small  colleges  for  retarding 
the  development  of  the  secondary  education. 
This  has  been  done  by  them  in  various  ways : 
first,  by  squandering  funds  entirely  inadequate 
to  the  endowment  of  colleges,  but  often  sufficient 
to  the  equipment  of  good  academies ;  secondly, 
by  admitting  to  their  classes,  students  who  have 
not  properly  performed  the  work  of  the  school. 
It  is  very  difficult  to  retain  an  ambitious  and  im- 
patient youth  in  school,  when  he  knows,  and  his 
teachers  know,  that  some  college  will  admit  him. 
But  thirdly  and  chiefly,  by  holding  on  to  about 
two  years  of  work  rightfully  belonging  to  the 
secondary  school,  which  is  thus  cramped  out  of 
its  just  proportions,  and  crowded  out  of  its  prop- 
er sphere. 

There  has  been  a  general  and  gratit'ying  advance 
in  the  standards  of  law  and  medical  colleges,  but  the 
number  which  exact  for  admission  the  secondary 
education  contemplated  in  the  address  is  still  small. 

Still  I  am  bound  here  to  confess  that  I  do  not 
know  of  any  denominational  college,  however 
obscure,  which  admits,  as  Freshmen,  boys  from 


90  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

the  common  school  and  graduates  them  as 
Bachelors  in  four  years.  This  distinction  has 
been  reserved  for  some  public  institutions  called 
colleges  and  universities.  This  is  "confusion 
worse  confounded."  If  a  new  and  crowning  ar- 
gument were  needed  for  the  organization  of  our 
education  I  think  we  have  it  here. 

If  we  pass  on  to  university  education  proper 
we  find  less  confusion  because  we  find  that  field 
mostly  unoccupied.  Poverty  forbids,  and  for- 
ever will  forbid,  the  great  mass  of  the  colleges 
from  developing  into  "Genuine  Universities." 
Let  us  be  grateful  for  poverty  when  we  contem- 
plate the  prospect  of  twenty-six  projected  uni- 
versities in  a  single  State.  ^Minnesota  had  at 
least  five  universities  chartered  before  there  was 
a  single  preparatory  school  in  existence.  The 
stronger  and  richer  colleges  already  well  ad- 
vanced on  to  university  grovmd  are  retarded  and 
embarrassed  by  the  immense  load  of  mere  sec- 
ondary work  they  are  obliged  to  carry.  Full 
two  years  of  their  work  is  mere  school  drill, 
which  could  be  done  quite  as  well  and  much 
cheaper  elsewhere.  The  result  is  a  confusion  of 
methods  and  discipline,  great  financial  embar- 
rassment, and  indefinite  postponement  of  the 
genuine  university  in  America. 

An  examination  of  early  Minnesota  legislative 
journals  discloses  the  fact  that  twenty-five  bills 
were  introduced  for  chartering  colleges  and  univer- 


THE   MINNESOTA   PLAN  91 

sities,  and  enacted  into  laws  before  Minnesota  be- 
came a  state  in  1858.  A  favorite  form  of  title  was, 
e.  g.,  "The  Fremont  University  of  Minnesota." 

I  trust  it  is  apparent  that  a  thorough,  orderly 
and  scientific  organization  of  education  is  at 
length  needed.  This  want  is  much  more  appar- 
ent in  our  new  states  than  in  the  older  ones,  in 
which  the  various  grades  of  schools  have  ar- 
ranged themselves  into  a  convenient  association, 
though  not  into  an  organism.  In  the  new  states, 
the  public  system  of  education  has  pushed  its  way, 
albeit  timidly  and  tentatively,  beyond  the  lim- 
its of  the  primary  field.  Many  of  them  have 
established  (so  far  as  legislation  can  establish) 
state  universities ;  but  no  state,  so  far  as  I  am 
informed,  has  yet  provided  by  general  laws  for 
any  system  proper,  of  secondary  schools.  The 
result  is  a  wide  and  deep  chasm  between  the 
university  and  the  only  lower  schools  properly 
within  the  system, — the  primary  schools.  I  say 
properly  within  the  system,  for  the  high  schools 
carried  on  in  the  cities  and  large  villages  are 
municipal  establishments,  supported  mainly  by 
local  taxation,  independent  of  state  control,  and 
organized  rather  according  to  local  circumstances 
and  a  fashion  of  the  times,  than  according  to  any 
general  educational  policy.  The  "independent 
school  district"  system  must  at  length  be  re- 
placed by  a  better  and  broader  one — a  system 
which  shall  unite  the  high  schools,  the  primar}^ 


92  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

schools,  the  university,  the  normal  schools  and  the 
institutions  still  falsely  called  charitable,  into  a 
single,  harmonious  organism. 

This  gulf  between  the  state  universities  and 
the  primary  schools  has  been  bridged  over  tem- 
porarily by  the  preparatory  departments  of  the 
universities.  It  has  not  until  lately  been  possi- 
ble to  persuade  the  local  boards  of  education 
who  control  the  city  high  schools,  that  it  was 
for  the  interest  of  all  to  prepare  students  for  the 
university.  The  change  for  the  better  in  this 
respect  is  encouraging.  It  is  a  move  in  the  right 
direction. 

It  was  not  till  1878  that  the  ^Minnesota  high 
schools  were  brought  into  quasi-organic  connection 
with  the  University,  by  a  law  entitled,  "An  act  for 
the  encouragement  of  higher  education."  The  es- 
sential provision  was  the  creation  of  a  so-called 
"High  School  Board,"  to  administer  a  fund  for  the 
purposes  of  the  act.  This  board  was  authorized  to 
pay  a  share  of  the  fund  to  every  high  school  prop- 
erly equipped  and  officered,  giving  instruction  in  col- 
lege preparatory  studies,  to  students  of  both  sexes 
from  any  part  of  the  state,  free  of  charge  for  tui- 
tion. The  efifect  was  to  open  the  city  and  village 
high  schools  to  the  country  boys  and  girls.  At  the 
present  time  206  high  schools  are  performing  this 
service,  pouring  a  steady  tide  of  their  "graduates" 
into  the  universit}'. 

It  was  perhaps  superfluous  to  argue  at  length 
in  favor  of  the  extension  of  ptiblic  interference  in 


THE    MIXXESOTA    PLAN  93 

education  beyond  the  primary  schools.  The  fact 
is  that  in  many  states  the  pubHc  system,  if  sys- 
tem it  may  be  called,  has  already  occupied 
(usurped,  if  you  please  for  the  present  consider- 
ation) the  whole  field.  The  high  schools  in  our 
Western  cities  embracing  in  their  courses  many 
studies  of  the  college,  it  is  only  under  peculiar 
circumstances  that  private  academies  can  exist 
alongside  of  them. 

Leaving  out  of  account  for  the  present  all  pri- 
vate and  corporate  institutions  of  learning,  we 
see  that  the  people  have  already  resolved  to  pro- 
vide themselves  with  a  complete  hierarchy  of 
schools.  This  being  the  case,  no  one  will  deny 
that  for  this,  there  must  be  organization,  com- 
pete, exhaustive,  rational. 

Regarded  merely  as  an  industry,  education 
probably  stands  next  to  agriculture  in  the  amount 
of  capital  invested  and  labor  employed;  and  yet 
these  are  not  a  tithe  of  what  they  ought  now  to 
be.  Mere  financial  economy  will  at  length  compel 
a  careful  and  wise  organization  of  our  public 
educational  agencies.  States  will  not  forever 
continue  to  pay  universities  for  doing  the  work 
of  the  secondary  schools.  They  will  rather  wisely 
and  generously  contribute  to  building  up  a  great 
galaxy  of  high  schools  and  academies,  all  public 
in  some  sense,  to  do  that  work. 


94  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

Already  the  opinion  has  been  voiced  that  tlie  Uni- 
versity of  Minnesota  will  be  so  overrun  with  stu- 
dents that  it  will  be  necessary  to  call  on  the  high 
schools  to  extend  their  preparatory  courses  and  hold 
their   students   for   a   longer  period. 

The  state  having  taken  command  of  the  whole 
educational  forces,  there  is  no  refuge  from  the 
conclusion  that  she  must  organize  them  upon 
sound  principles.  She  alone  has  the  authority, 
the  power  and  the  motive. 

We  come  then  to  the  question,  Upon  what 
principles  shall  the  public  education  be  organized  ? 
It  will  be  impossible  to  treat  of  this  exhaustively 
in  this  paper,  but  it  is  necessary  to  state  and 
briefly  discuss  one  or  two  of  them. 

I.  The  state,  i.  e.,  the  people  organized  as  the 
source  of  authority,  the  depositary  of  power,  and 
the  custodian  of  the  revenues,  must  organize  and 
hold  the  chief  control  and  direction  of  all  edu- 
cational forces  and  agencies. 

It  may  be  assumed  that  the  National  Universitj^ 
when  established,  as  it  ought  to  be,  will  not  be  a 
place  for  formal  instruction,  much  less  of  discipline 
of   large   numbers   of   undergraduate   students.  It 

should  not  be  simply  another  university,  but  a  place 
where  persons  of  genius  and  proved  capacity  may 
be  enabled  to  carry  on  researches,  investigations 
and  experiments  likely  to  add  to  human  knowledge 
and  man's  power  over  nature.  Each  state  will  still 
nce.d  its  own  complete  sj-stem  of  education. 


THE   MINNESOTA    PLAN  95 

2.  The  organization  should  be  such  as  to  em- 
ploy and  embrace  all  forces  and  agencies.  It 
must  not  discourage  nor  release  parents  and 
guardians  from  the  instruction  of  their  children 
and  wards.  I  should  wish  indeed  that  no  schooling 
could  be  had,  which  did  not  require  the  co-opera- 
tion and  constant  activity  of  parents.  It  should 
make  room  for  the  work  of  the  Church  to  the 
full  extent  of  her  interests  and  resources.  The 
Church  is,  of  her  very  nature,  an  educating  in- 
stitution. She  joins  with  parents  in  training 
children  to  "lead  godly  and  Christian  lives."  She 
sustains  the  state  by  teaching  the  citizens  obedi- 
ence to  law,  and  incessantly  inculcates  that  prin- 
ciple of  brotherhood  which  is  the  very  core  of 
republicanism.  In  the  vast  and  magnificent  un- 
dertaking of  educating  the  whole  people  the  fam- 
ily and  the  Church  cannot  be  ignored.  There  is 
room  and  work  for  all.  As  the  modern  idea  of 
the  army  is  the  people  armed,  so  the  idea  of  the 
school  system  should  be  that  of  the  whole  people 
organized  for  culture. 

3.  The  organization  should  be  such  as  to  al- 
low and  to  invite  the  widest  competition  of  per- 
sons and  agencies.  We  misconceive  the  matter, 
in  my  opinion,  when  we  think  of  a  school  systeni 
as  a  huge,  complicated,  cast-iron  machine,  to  be 
imposed  upon  communities,  and  which  they  must 
accept  or  go  untaught.  We  do  not  want  a  system 
to  be  operated  by  a  vast  horde  of  officials,  ig- 


96  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

norant  of  the  whole  business,  making  and  unmak- 
ing teachers,  tinkering  courses  of  study  according 
to  no  principles  or  bad  ones.  •  There  can  be  no 
profession  of  teaching  until  the  teacher  can  in 
some  way  stand  upon  the  same  foundation  with 
men  of  other  professions, — that  of  efificiency, 
diligence,  experience. 

The  speaker  once  wrote  and  published  an  argu- 
ment for  a  common  school  system  which  would  per- 
mit an3'  person  of  assured  competency,  to  open  and  con- 
duct a  school  of  his  own.  and  receive  pubHc  aid.  after 
inspection  of  his  phint,  methods  and  results.  The  objec- 
tion immediately  raised  was,  that  such  a  system  would 
enable  certain  religious  bodies  to  engross  the  schooling 
of  certain  communities. 

The  best  schooling  the  speaker  ever  had  was  in 
the  so-called  "select  school"  of  Alexander  McQuigg, 
an  independent,  self-emplojang  pedagogue.  His  was 
a  veritable  "normal  school"  for  several  counties 
long  before  the  State  of  New  York  opened  hers  at 
Albany. 

4.  It  follows  from  the  foregoing  that  the  peo- 
ple should  delegate  to  boards,  superintendents 
and  other  officers  the  least  power  and  authority 
consistent  with  efficiency,  and  reserve  to  them- 
selves individually  the  largest  liberty  and  oppor- 
tunities consistent  with  the  general  good.  The 
schools  must  not  go  into  the  hands  of  officials 
and  out  of  the  hands  of  the  people. 

5.  Any  orderly  organization  of  schools  will 
recognize  and  conform  to  the  natural  epochs  of 
education  corresponding  to  childhood,  youth  and 


THE   MINNESOTA    PLAN  97 

early  manhood.  Each  of  these  periods  has  its 
pecuHar  wants,  objects,  methods  and  discipHne. 
The  child  is  to  be  trained,  the  youth  instructed, 
the  man  informed.  In  all  those  countries  in 
which  education  has  been  organized  these  three 
stages  have  been  carefully  distinguished,  and  they 
are  habitually  designated  by  the  writers  on  edu- 
cation by  the  terms,  primary,  secondary  and  su- 
perior. 

I  have  endeavored  to  show  the  injurious  con- 
sequences which  have  followed  the  confounding 
of  the  secondary  and  superior  educations  in  this 
country.  The  remedy  for  these  must  begin  with 
a  wise  and  liberal  but  exhaustive  organization 
of  education.  This  alone  can,  in  my  opinion,  dis- 
entangle existing  complications,  harmonize  op- 
posing interests,  and  unite  all  agencies. 

THE    MIXXESOTA    PLAN  :    LOCAL    CONDITIONS. 

It  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  those  present 
to  attend  to  a  short  sketch  of  an  institution  ol 
learning,  which  has  been  planned  and  for  some 
time  conducted  with  reference  to  the  principles 
just  treated  of.  I  refer  to  the  University  of 
:Minnesota,  located  in  this  city,  in  which  I  have 
been  for  some  time  employed.  The  nominal  ex- 
istence of  this  institution  dates  back  to  1851,  but 
the  first  actual  scholastic  work  was  begun  in 
October,  1867.  Two  years  later  a  faculty  was 
made  up   and   college   work   entered   upon.      In 


98  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

July,  1 87 1,  the  present  plan  of  organization  re- 
placed a  provisional  one  previously  in  operation. 
It  will  be  proper  and  orderly  to  state  first,  the 
conditions  of  the  problem  which  at  that  time  pre- 
sented itself.  The  first  and  fundamental  one 
was,  that  the  people  of  Minnesota  from  the  ear- 
liest moment  in  her  history  were  committed  to 
a  system  of  public  education  not  confined  to  the 
primary  field,  but  embracing  potentially  the  whole 
secular  culture.  The  Congress  which  organized 
the  Territorial  government  at  the  same  time  that 
it  secured  to  the  people  a  common  school  fund 
of  magnificent  proportions,  bestowed  a  liberal 
endowment  for  a  university.  Unfortunately  no 
such  provision  was  made  for  public  secondary 
schools,  or  for  normal  schools.  I  trust  our  lib- 
eral and  enterprising  people  will  yet  and  soon  set 
apart  some  adequate  endowment  for  these  in- 
stitutions. 

The  policy  of  granting  state  aid  to  high  schools 
has  been  established  in  Minnesota,  as  above  relat- 
ed. 

The  resolution  of  the  people  to  build  up  a 
single  comprehensive  system  of  public  instruc- 
tion was  again  manifested  upon  the  framing  and 
adoption  of  the  Constitution  in  1857-8.  That 
instrument  confirmed  the  previous  legislation  re- 
lating to  the  University,  and  declared  the  same 
to  be  "The  University  of  the  State  of  Min- 
nesota." 


THE    MINNESOTA    PLAN  99 

From  the  language  of  the  Constitution,  and  all 
the  laws  relating  to  this  subject,  it  is  apparent 
that  the  intention  was,  that  this  institution,  de- 
signed to  form  the  culminating  member  of  the  ed- 
ucational structure,  should  be  one, — without  a 
peer  within  the  system. 

A  further  proof  of  this  intention  must  be  seen 
in  the  circumstance  that  the  legislature  of  1868 
virtually  added  to  the  University  endowment  the 
State's  share  of  the  national  land  grant  of  1862, 
for  the  benefit  of  colleges  of  agriculture  and  the 
mechanic  arts,  and  merged  the  Agricultural  Col- 
lege previously  established  elsewhere,  with  a  sim- 
ilar department  embraced  in  the  original  charter 
of  the  Territorial  University.  By  virtue  of  this 
act  the  University  became  the  people's  chosen 
place  and  agency  for  conducting  the  professional 
education,  not  merely  in  the  so-called  "learned 
professions,"  but  in  the  "industrial  professions," 
as  they  may  now  well  be  called.  The  charter, 
while  specifying  certain  great  leading  depart- 
ments, places  no  limits  to  the  organization  of 
new  and  additional  ones. 

There  were  then  these  data — a  general  system 
of  public  ins.truction.  comprehensive  in  spirit,  de- 
fective in  organization  and  development — at  its 
head  the  University,  or  rather  the  project  of  a 
University,  as  yet  without  competitors,  having  a 
liberal  endowment  in  prospect,  free  to  develop 
in  any  direction,  but  especially  bounden  to  prose- 


loo  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

cute  certain  lines  of  work  in  fulfillment  of  its 
trust.  I  refer  to  that  education  contemplated  by 
the  Act  of  Congress  of  1862,  already  mentioned. 

One  other  consideration  must  not  be  omitted. 
A  flourishing  preparatory  department  had  been 
in  existence  since  1867.  Beyond  this  the  work 
had  extended  but  a  single  year.  Whether  it 
was  good  policy  or  bad  policy  to  begin  with, 
this  secondary  work  it  was  not  worth  while  then, 
nor  is  it  now,  to  argue.  There  it  was,  in  progress. 
One  thing  is  clear,  that  if  the  institution  was  to 
do  anything  in  those  years,  she  must  do  such 
work.  There  was  no  other.  There  were  not.  in 
1 87 1,  six  schools,  public  or  private,  in  the  whole 
state,  fitting  students  to  enter  college.  Such  was 
the  "situation"  when  the  problem  of  the  perma- 
ment  organization  of  the  institution  demanded 
solution. 

There  were  few  things  to  oppose,  and  there 
were  very  many  circumstances  which  seemed  to 
invite  an  attempt  to  organize  according  to  prin- 
ciples rather  than  according  to  the  prevailing 
fashion. 

MINNESOTA  PLAN  IN  DETAIL. 

Accordingly,  the  first  step  was  taken  by  form- 
ing a  department  of  secondary  instruction  of 
wider  range  than  customary.  This  was  accom- 
]ilished  by  throwing  the  usual  work  of  freshmen 
and  sophomores  out  of  the  proper  University 
courses,  and  merging  it  into  the  old  preparatory 


THE   MINNESOTA   PLAN  loi 

department  to  form  the  department  of  Elemen- 
tary Instruction  authorized  by  the  charter.  While 
the  account  just  given  of  merging  the  work  of 
the  first  two  college  years  into  the  secondary  de- 
partment serves  well  for  a  rough  description,  it 
needs  explanation.  The  object  aimed  at  was  not 
to  divide  the  secondary  and  superior  education  up- 
on any  arbitrary  line,  but  as  nearly  as  possible 
upon  their  natural  and  theoretical  boundary,  ref- 
erence being  constantly  had  to  the  actual  and  the 
practical.  This  division  therefore  implies,  and 
to  some  extent  necessitates  an  assortment  of  stud- 
ies, throwing  back  into  the  secondar.y,  or  training 
department,  some  elementary  subjects,  which,  of 
late  years,  had  been  wedged  into  the  upper  classes 
of  many  colleges,  because  they  must  go  some- 
where. Such  are  the  elements  of  the  natural  and 
physical  sciences :  geology^  botany,  zoology,  phys- 
ics and  chemistry,  by  which  the  upper  classmen 
of  colleges  have  for  many  years  been  amused. 
At  the  same  time,  this  assortment  has  thrown 
forward  a  few  subjects,  more  suitable  to  students 
of  riper  age  and  development. 

It  is  remarkable,  however,  how  nearly  the  theo- 
retical boundary  between  the  secondary  and  su- 
perior education  in  America  falls  upon  that  line 
which  divides  the  ui)per  and  lower  classes  of 
our  best  colleges.  This  twofold  division  of  work 
and  also  of  methods,  is  one  which  every  college 
officer  and  every  college  faculty  feels,  and  one 


102  UI^IVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

which  is  emphatically  recognized  by  the  under- 
graduates. 

The  close  of  the  sophomore  year,  sometimes 
celebrated  by  a  biennial  examination,  is  a  well- 
marked  era  in  x^merican  college  life.  Grammar- 
drill,  paradigms,  construing,  blackboard  drudg- 
ery are  over;  a  new  field  of  humanizing,  literary 
and  reflective  subjects  opens.  At  this  point  the 
optional  studies,  if  they  can  be  afforded,  come  in 
to  vary  the  old  and  dull  routine.  Thus  even  the 
most  conservative  colleges  recognize  the  consum- 
mation of  a  former  epoch,  and  the  opening  of  a 
new  one. 

If  we  turn  to  the  colleges  or  universities  of 
later  growth,  which  in  response  to  modern  de- 
mands have  added  new  courses  of  study  unknown 
to  Busby  and  Dr.  Johnson,  we  observe  this 
same  dividing  line  extended  and  emphasized.  If 
the  institution  is  polytechnic  only,  we  find  its 
several  courses  of  study  identical  in  form  and 
substance,  or  nearly  so,  for  the  first  two  years, 
and  then  branching  away,  each  to  its  special 
work.  If  there  are  both  literary  and  scientific 
courses,  we  have  two  sets,  each  having  its  ele- 
ments substantially  coincident  up  to  the  end  of  the 
second  year,  and  further,  the  two  sets  dovetailing 
into  one  another  all  along.  The  examples  are 
too  numerous  and  conspicuous  to  need  mention. 
The  conclusion  is,  that  the  American  universi- 
ties, colleges  and  polytechnic  schools,  find  them- 


THE    MIXXESOTA    PLAN  103 

selves  doing  two  kinds  of  work  which  they  are 
obHged  to  divide  by  a  strong  line.  It  is  the  char- 
acteristic of  the  earlier  ipoiety  that  it  is  indivisible 
(except  as  intimated)  and  essential  to  all  stu- 
dents. The  studies  are  for  drill  and  discipline, 
and  form  part  of  the  indispensable  foundation  on 
which  to  build  the  higher  culture.  They  belong, 
of  their  nature,  to  the  secondary  period,  and  to 
that  place  our  ^linnesota  plan  relegates  them. 

\\  hile  American  experience  formed  the  guide 
and  principle  of  the  arrangement  under  discus- 
sion, that  of  foreign  countries,  in  which  education 
has  been  authoritatively  organized  could  not  be 
left  out  of  account.  The  new  secondary  depart- 
ment will  be  found  to  correspond  in  location,  in 
object,  and  in  scope,  with  the  gymnasia  and  real 
schools  of  Germany  and  the  lyceums  of  France 
and  Switzerland.  Upon  this  point  I  am  happy 
in  having  the  conclusive  testimony  of  President 
AlcCosh.  as  given  in  a  paper  having  no  refer- 
ence to  this  institution.  Speaking  from  personal 
observation,  under  circumstances  the  most  favor- 
able for  getting  at  the  facts,  Dr.  i\IcCosh  says : 
"The  course  of  instruction  in  the  gymnasia  and 
real  schools  '•'  *  "  embraces  not  only  the 
branches  taught  in  our  high  schools,  but  those 
taught  in  the  freshmen  and  sophomore  classes 
of  our  university  courses."  ]\Iy  own  observa- 
tion not  long  before,  brought  me  to  the  same  con- 
clusion in  substance.  Thus,  while  undertaking  to 


104  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

open  a  new  path,  we  are  still  keeping  on  the 
safe  ground  of  home  and  foreign  precedent  and 
experience. 

I  desire  to  say,  however,  that  should  any  ques- 
tion be  raised  as  to  whether  we  have,  as  a  fact, 
drawn  our  division  line  through  the  exactly  prop- 
er point,  we  should  make  no  strenuous  defense. 
Our  first  aim  was  to  segregate  the  epochs  of  the 
secondary  and  superior  education ;  the  second, 
to  do  it  upon  some  practicable  line.  We  may 
have  struck  a  trifle  too  high  or  too  low,  but  are 
probably  not  far  from  the  permanent  boundary. 

The  next  step  in  the  solution  of  the  organi- 
zation problem,  was  the  formation  of  such  of  the 
''Colleges"  called  for  in  the  statute  as  could  be 
put  into  actual  operation.  Law  and  medicine 
were,  of  necessity,  indefinitely  postponed.  There 
remained  the  literary  department  and  those  of 
agriculture  and  the  mechanic  arts.  Each  of  these, 
starting  from  the  common  foundation  of  the  sec- 
ondary department,  extends  over  a  period  of  two 
years,  leading  to  baccalaureate  degrees. 

These  degrees  are  therefore  reached  at  the 
same  point  as  in  the  most  reputable  American  col- 
leges— not  sooner,  for  the  standard  is  low  enough 
at  best — not  later,  because  the  baccalaureate  is  a 
first  degree,  and  has  a  traditional  place  and  value. 
It  is  intended  to  continue  conferring  this  degree 
at  about  the  customary  point  and  to  develop  the 
various  courses  by  adding  post-graduate   work, 


THE    MINNESOTA    PLAN  105 

rather  than  by  interpolating-  new  studies  into  the 
undergraduate  courses,  already  overcrowded. 
The  extension  of  these  colleges  then  onto  post- 
graduate ground  is  a  part  of  the  general  plan,  to 
be  developed  as  time  and  means  may  allow.  In 
regard  to  degrees,  the  earliest  announcement  of 
this  scheme  contained  the  statement,  "No  degrees 
except  after  successful  examination."  It  is, 
therefore,  my  belief  that  this  institution  was  the 
first  of  the  northern  colleges  which  proclaimed 
formally  the  abolition  of  honorary  degrees. 

The  third  step  in  our  enterprise  was,  after 
having  separated  our  superior  and  secondary 
work,  to  provide  for  getting  rid  of  the  latter,  in 
order  to  use  our  resources  for  the  development  of 
the  proper  University  work.  The  legislature  of 
1872,  in  amending  the  charter  authorized  the 
Board  of  Regents  to  dispense  with  the  department 
of  elementary  instruction,  so  fast  as  to  them  might 
seem  proper.  Accordingly  one  year  (the  old 
first  preparatory  year,)  has  already  been  drop- 
ped ;  another,  the  old  second  preparatory  class, 
will  disappear  at  the  close  of  the  academic  year 
about  to  open.  There  will  then  remain  upon  our 
hands  the  sophomore,  freshman  and  sub-freshman 
classes.  It  is  part  of  our  plan  to  drop  successive- 
ly all  these  as  fast  as  may  be  prudent  and  feasible. 

MINNESOT.X    PLAX  :    AS.SUMED    ADVANT.VGES. 

Passing  now  to  a  brief  consideration  of  the  ad- 
vantages   of    our    organization,    two    questions 


io6  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

present  themselves  :  ( i )  How  does  the  secondary 
department  work  as  a  temporary  element  of  the 
university?  and  (2)  what  will  be  gained  when 
the  university  shall  at  length  be  rid  of  it? 

After  an  experience  of  four  years  I  am  able 
to  say  that  the  plan  works  well.     The  assortment 
of  studies,  already  referred  to,  was  effected  with 
less  difficulty  than  might  have  been  expected.     A 
corresponding  adjustment  of  methods   and  dis- 
cipline has  proved  itself  useful  and  advantageous. 
As  appropriate  to  the  period  of  training,  a  stricter 
regimen  is  enforced  in  the  secondary  department, 
wdiile   university    students    are    allowed    a   large 
degree  of  that  "academic  freedom,"   suitable  to 
their    enlarged    experience,    and    appropriate    to 
their  age  and  rank.     The  collegiate  students  are 
required  to  attend  the  Chapel  exercises;  univer- 
sity students  are  under  no  compulsion,  unless  ap- 
pointed to  perform  some  public  exercise.     In  the 
secondary   department   a  very   strict   account   of 
absentees  is  kept,  and  punctual  attendance,  and 
preparation,  are  rigorously  enforced.     The  uni- 
versity student  accounts  to  his  professors  for  ab- 
sences, the  only  rule  for  their  joint  direction  being 
tliat  a  certain   number   (5)    of  unnecessary  ab- 
sences debars  a  student  from  examination.     The 
young  men  of  the  secondary  department  only  are 
required  to  perform  the  military  exercises,  which, 
by  virtue  of  the  act  of  1862,  we  are  obligated 
to  practice.     In  the  superior  departments,  or  col- 


THE   MINNESOTA   PLAN  107 

leges,  the  instruction  is  extensively,  though  not 
exclusively  given  by  lectures,  while  in  the  second- 
ary department  daily  recitations  interspersed  with 
frequent  oral  and  written  examinations,  are  the 
rule.  To  experienced  students,  who  have  been 
tiained  to  investigate  subjects,  and  to  verify  ref- 
erences, the  lecture  system  is  exceedingly  useful 
and  economical ;  for  young  people  still  needing  to 
parse  and  to  cipher,  it  is  altogether  out  of  place. 
Our  experience  leads  us  to  expect  that  this 
division  of  the  two  periods  of  the  higher  educa- 
tion will  solve,  for  ourselves  at  least,  the  most 
serious  problem  connected  with  American  college 
discipline,  one  which  grows  out  of  the  fact  that 
those  institutions  are  doing  two  kinds  of  work. 
The  original  theory  of  college  discipline  was  that 
the  students  were  actually  living  together  under 
the  fatherly  care  and  surveillance  of  the  faculty, 
the  president  in  particular  standing  in  loco  pa- 
rentis. The  youth  were  supposed  to  be  in  train- 
ing, "under  tutors  and  governors."  Of  late  years 
the  young  men  have  been  going  abroad  to  study 
in  France,  Germany  and  England.  Your  fresh- 
man, perhaps,  has  wintered  in  Rome  and  Athens, 
and  knows  the  Aventine  and  the  Acropolis  better 
than  his  professor  knows  West  Rock  or  Bunker 
Hill.  These  gentlemen  have  imported  that  fash- 
ion of  "academic  freedom"  so  dear  to  the  Ger- 
man Rurschen,  and  the  Oxford  or  Cambridge 
athlete.      Xow    this    "academic    freedom,"    good 


io8  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

enough,  it  may  be,  in  and  for  the  ancient  univer- 
sities of  Europe,  which  are  aUogether  universities, 
has  invaded,  and  in  some  cases  ahnost  captured, 
the  American  college,  which  is  only  half  a  univer- 
sity. It  is  our  hope  in  Minnesota,  under  a  new 
regime,  to  tolerate  this  freedom  so  far  as  is  rea- 
sonable, and  where  it  properly  belongs,  without 
allowing  it  to  enter  where  it  can  only  be  distract- 
ing and  mischievous. 

The  operation  of  this  system  within  the  lim- 
its of  the  university  is,  however,  a  matter  of  small 
moment  compared  with  its  intended  effect  upon 
the  general  system  of  public  education  in  Min- 
nesota. 

This  plan  implies  and  calls  for  the  upbuilding 
in  the  state,  of  a  class  of  high  schools  of  more 
generous  scope  than  have  been  generally  contem- 
plated. One  thing  which  has  retarded  the  de- 
velopment of  these  schools  in  the  new  states  is, 
the  fact  that  they  have  had  no  definite  place  in  the 
system  of  instruction.  They  have,  therefore,  been 
built  up  to  their  present  proportions  outside  of  the 
system.  What  the  high  school  needs  is  place 
and  room.  It  must  have  its  appropriate  work 
and  the  whole  of  it.  Much  opposition  would  be 
silenced  if  those  who  oppose  the  support  of  high 
schools  out  of  the  public  funds,  could  see  the 
nature  and  scope  of  its  instruction  clearly  under- 
stood and  acknowledged  by  educational  men. 
With  the  common  school  stretching  up  and  the 


THE   MINNESOTA    PLAN  109 

college  stretching  down,  it  is  difficult  for  the  un- 
professional to  see  distinctly  that  any  certain  dis- 
tance lies  between  them.     It  will  be  impossible, 
permanently,  to  enlist  as  conductors  of  the  high 
schools,  teachers  of  scholarship  and  enterprise  so 
long  as  they  are  restricted  to  a  narrow  and  unin- 
viting field.     There  can  be  little  enthusiasm  in 
doing   half-and-half    work.      It   is   poor   encour- 
agement to  a  teacher  who  has  carried  a  pupil 
to  quadratics,  to  give  him  over  at  that  point  to  the 
college  tutor.     It  is  merely  aggravating  to  stop 
at  the  close  of  a  fifth  book  of  geometry,  because 
the  college  claims  the  remaining  ones  as  its  prov- 
ince.   He  can  see  no  reason  why  the  boy  who  has 
read  two  books  of  Homer,  must  read  no  more  till 
he  has  been  booked  a  freshman.    And  there  is  no 
reason,  beyond  a  mere  fashion.     The  work  of  the 
first  two  years  of  the  college  is  the  work  of  the 
secondary  school,  and  there  it  can  be  done  most 
efficiently  and  economically.    Turn  this  work  over 
to  the  high  school,  and  that  institution  has  at  once 
its  function,  and  the  whole  of  it.     Its  teachers 
will  stand  on  independent  ground,  and  will  glad- 
ly devote  themselves  for  life  to  a  high,  noble  and 
inspiring  calling.     The  history  of  the  American 
academies  is  interesting  as  showing  how  impossi- 
ble it  has  been  to  keep  them  down  to  the  work 
of   fitting  boys   for   entering  a   freshman    class. 
They  have  almost  invariably  extended  their  work 
in  some  lines  far  beyond  that  point.    The  well- 


no  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

known  researches  of  President  Barnard  into  the 
condition  of  the  New  York  academies,  show, 
that  out  of  a  total  of  4,500  pupils.  2,287  were 
pursuing  college  studies,  and  900  of  that  number 
tlie  studies  of  upper  class-men.  The  high  school, 
however,  cannot  be  that  pliant,  flexible  instrument 
which  the  academy  has  most  happily  been.  It 
must  have  its  well-defined  field  and  work.  Now, 
as  to  the  question  of  feasibility,  the  answer  is, 
that  this  extension  of  the  high  school  has,  in  many 
places,  already  taken  place.  The  high  schools 
of  Chicago,  St.  Louis,  Cincinnati,  Baltimore,  Phil- 
adelphia, and  of  many  other  cities,  have  already 
advanced  their  courses  quite  up  to  the  upper  limit 
of  the  secondary  stage.  A  great  many  high 
schools  are  advancing  on  the  same  line.  Even  in 
our  own  young  state,  we  have  several  high 
schools  which  are  giving  a  considerable  part  of 
that  additional  instruction  which  they  are  asked 
by  the  Minnesota  plan  to  assume, — and  what  is 
more,  some  of  our  ]\Iinnesota  high  schools  are 
proposing  to  carry  some  studies  belonging  not  to 
the  earlier,  but  to  the  later,  years  of  the  ordinary 
college  course. 

It  cannot  be  necessary  to  make  an  argument  to 
show  that  the  high  school  cannot  economically 
give  instruction  in  such  higher  college,  or  more 
properly,  university  studies.  All  will  concede 
that  there  is  no  time,  no  suitable  means  and  equip- 
ment,  no  adequate   preparation   of   the   scholars 


THE   MINNESOTA    PLAN  iii 

for  such  instruction.  An  organization  upon  gen- 
eral, scientific  principles  is  needed  not  only  to  give 
the  secondary  schools  their  true  place  and  full 
scope,  but  to  constrain  them  from  desultory  and 
seductive  incursions  into  fields  not  their  own. 

It  is,  therefore,  already  feasible  in  many  places 
to  give  the  high  school  its  full  and  appropriate 
range.     It  will   soon  become  so  in  many   more 
places,    and   we    may,    without    extravagant    ex- 
pectation,   look    forward    to    a    time    when    our 
slate  shall  boast  of  its  thirty  or  forty  great  high 
schools,  ofiicered  bv  teachers  of  eminent  scholar- 
ship  devoted  to  a  work  worthy  any  man's  "dear- 
est action"  and  ambition.     These  schools  can  do 
the  secondary  work  economically.     No  extensive 
and   costly  equipment  of  laboratories,   museums 
or  libraries  is  necessary.     The  essential  means  of 
illustration  they  can  possess.    They  have,  or  may 
have,  the  buildings  and  the  teachers.     Our  high 
school  principals  are  now  generally  college  grad- 
uates, fully  com])etent  to  oversee  and  to  impart 
the  additional  instruction  which  our  scheme  im- 
plies.    I  know  they  would  be  more  than  willing 
to  enter  upon  this  advanced  work,  which  is,  in 
its  nature,  merely  an  extension  of  that  already  in 
their  hands,  and   which  they   are   forced  by  tl^e 
present  fashion  to  surrender  just  when  the  up-hill 
tug  of  the  course  is  over. 

The  economy  of  the  plan,  however,  becomes 
more  apparent  if  we  regard  the  interest  of  the 


112  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

youth  needing  and  desiring  the  higher  education, 
and  that  of  the  parents  and  friends  who  are  to 
pay  the  expenses.  This  plan  will  bring  the  edu- 
cation essential  to  that  vast  body  of  people  who 
are  employers  and  directors  to  their  very  doors. 
Such  high  schools  as  we  contemplate  might  indeed 
be  called  the  "people's  colleges,"  and  they  would 
be  for  America  what  Dr.  Hoyt  declares  the  Ger- 
man secondary  schools — the  Gymnasia  and  the 
Real  schools  to  be — "the  pride  and  glory  of  the 
German  people."  A  few  feeble  colleges,  an  iso- 
lated university,  cannot  educate  the  people.  They 
can  only  inform  and  equip  a  few  leaders.  If  we 
mean  to  educate  the  people  beyond  those  rudi- 
ments essential  to  the  bare  existence  of  men  in 
civilized  states;  if  we  mean  to  give  to  a  great 
number  of  them  that  directive  power  which  the 
primary  instruction  cannot  give,  we  must  build 
up  the  secondary  schools.  The  economy  of 
bringing  these  institutions  within  reach  of  youth 
residing  at  their  homes  is  too  obvious  for  com- 
ment ;  but  there  is  still  a  higher  economy,  of  more 
account  than  any  pecuniary  savings. 

The  American  college  is  no  place  for  boys,  and 
yet  in  a  vast  number  of  instances,  mere  striplings 
have  to  be  sent  to  college  at  a  time  when  it  is 
the  next  thing  to  ruin  to  send  them  from  the  home 
circle  and  the  parental  care.  It  is  now  a  common 
thing  for  a  college  executive  to  be  asked  by  a 
father,  "What  shall  I  do  with  my  son?     He  is 


THE   MINNESOTA   PLAN  113 

ready  to  enter  college,  but  he   is   a   mere   child 
in  age  and  experience.    He  ought  not  to  be  sent 
from  home."     The  genuine  "normal"  secondary 
school  will  solve  this  question.     The  boy  will  re- 
main   safe   beneath    the    sheltering   influence   of 
home,  and  go  on  under  his  old  teacher  with  those 
studies  which  he  has  so  successfully  and  so  ar- 
dently pursued.     Having  tarried   at  Jericho  till 
his  beard  has  grown,  he  may  then  go  up  to  Jeru- 
salem— to  his  educational   Zion — the   university. 
By  the  mere  force  of  old  habit,  we  speak  of 
bo\s  as  the  materiel  of  our  professional  activity. 
This  fashion  is  out  of  date.  The  higher  education 
is    no    longer    of    the    masculine    gender;    it    is 
epicene.    Our  friends  at  the  East  may  still  worry 
and  contend  over  the  admission  of  women  to  this 
education.     In  the  West  that  question  has  long 
smce  been  settled.    When  asked,  as  I  sometimes 
am,  '"When  were  women  first  admitted  to  your 
University  of  Minnesota?"  my  reply  is,  "Never. 
They  were  never  excluded."     They  came  at  the 
beginning  and  took  their  places  as  a  matter  of 
course.     I  wish  to  remark  of  this  question  of  the 
higher  education  of  women,  that  all  there  has 
been,  for  many  years,  of  it  anywhere  is,  "Shall 
women  be  admitted  to  men's  colleges?"    No  one 
has  denied  the  higher  education  to  women,  at 
least  no  one  who  has  any  right  to  be  heard.   Now, 
the  chief  difficulty  which  presents  itself  is  mainly 
one  of  mere  boarding  and  maintenance.     There 


114  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

is  no  trouble  about  the  instruction  of  boys  and 
girls  in  the  same  classes.  Place  these  collegiate 
high  schools  in  a  hundred  cities  and  villages, 
and  the  difficulty  mentioned  mostly  disappears. 
The  girls  can  live  at  home,  going  and  coming 
from  its  safe  harbor  to  the  class  room.  Thus  the 
"mixed  education"  which  is  now  distressing — 
and  with  reason — so  many  minds,  will  become  a 
very  simple  problem.  The  grown  woman  may 
with  safety  and  profit  resort  to  the  university , 
if  she  desires  the  culture  of  the  university; 
and  thus  is  removed  the  temptation  felt  in  many 
quarters  to  attenuate  or  dilute  the  university 
courses  in  order  to  render  them  more  acceptable 
and  accessible  to  the  "weaker  vessels."  The  uni- 
versity must  not  be  reduced  to  the  status  and  con- 
dition of  the  female  seminary. 

A  further  motive  for  adopting  a  novel  uni- 
versity organization  was  the  desire  to  contribute 
to  the  elevation  of  the  professional  schools  and 
schooling  in  Minnesota  and  elsewhere.  I  do  not 
need  to  expose  the  acknowledged  infamy  of  most 
of  these  schools,  which  make  a  business  of  work- 
ing up  school  boys  into  lawyers  and  physicians — 
so  read  their  diplomas — in  fewer  weeks  than  it 
used  to  take  to  cipher  through  Daboll's  arith- 
metic. It  is  a  fact  that  law  and  medical  colleges 
in  neighboring  States  have  taken  young  men  from 
our  preparatory  classes  and  sent  them  back  to  us 
with  broad  and  fair  graduation  parchments  much 


THE    MINNESOTA    PLAN  115 

sooner  than  \vc  could  have  made  freshmen  of 
them.  The  better  men  in  these  learned  profes- 
sions are  not  blind  to  this  abomination,  and  they 
see  clearly  the  source  and  fountain  of  it,  in  those 
professional  schools  which  are  supported  by  the 
fees  collected  from  students.  I  see  no  remedy 
which  can  be  used  by  those  schools,  as  a  class. 
All  honor  to  the  few  who  have  already  made  a  be- 
ginning of  moderation.  J-Iarvard,  Michigan  and 
Chicago  no  longer  admit  without  inspection  ev- 
ery candidate  who  may  drift  to  their  doors.  There 
will,  however,  be  no  thorough  and  permanent 
cure  until  some  public,  endowed  institution,  not 
depending  on  students'  fees  for  its  existence  and 
continuance,  shall  set  up  and  steadfastly  hold  to 
a  high  standard  of  requisites  for  admission ;  or- 
ganize and  carry  out  orderly,  graded  courses  of 
study ;  and  graduate  no  man  who  shall  not  have 
completed  the  prescribed  work  with  fidelity  and 
thoroughness.  This  reform  we  propose,  in  Min- 
nesota, to  inaugurate  and  carry  through,  so  far 
as  our  own  state  is  concerned.  It  is  part  of  our 
university  scheme  that  no  person  shall  be  ad- 
mitted to  a  professional  school  as  a  candidate  for 
a  degree  who  shall  not  have  successfully  prose- 
cuted and  completed  a  secondary  course  of  stud- 
ies. We  fix  this  as  a  Jiiiiiiiniiin  of  qualification, 
believing  this  preparation  to  be  sufficient  for  the 
majority  of  professional  men — men  who  are  con- 
tent to  be  practitioners  merely,  and  do  not  aspire 


ii6  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

— as  few  men  do — to  become  original  investi- 
gators, authors,  savants.  The  few  who  do  so 
aspire  must  needs  devote  additional  years  to  a 
course  of  philosophical,  literary  and  higher  sci- 
entific studies.  For  all  such  we  ofifer  the  appro- 
priate opportunities  in  our  "College  of  Science, 
Literature,  and  the  Arts." 

>  We  do  not,  however,  stop  with  the  colleges 
devoted  to  training  men  for  the  learned  profes- 
sions. We  propose  to  raise  the  agricultural  and 
polytechnic  schools  to  the  same  high  plane.  In 
regard  to  the  courses  in  engineering,  civil  and 
mechanical,  we  propose  no  innovation,  but  merely 
to  follow  out  the  established  custom  of  Ameri- 
can polytechnic  schools.  As  already  shown, 
these  institutions  give  the  first  two  years  of  the 
course  to  general,  disciplinary — secondary  stud- 
ies ;  the  last  two,  to  professional  work  proper. 
In  our  institution,  the  engineering  student  passes 
from  the  Secondary  Department  and  enters  the 
College  of  Mechanic  Arts  at  the  beginning  of  the 
junior  year.  He  pursues  the  customary  studies 
for  two  years,  and  is  graduated  at  the  end  of 
that  time  a  Bachelor  only. 

It  is  in  reference  to  the  agricultural  college 
that  we  may  be  said  to  be  taking  a  new  depart- 
ure. It  has  generally  been  thought  politic,  if 
not  necessary,  by  those  who  have  been  charged 
with  the  organization  of  the  agricultural  colleges 
in  America,  to  begin  the  work  at  the  low  water 


THE   MINNESOTA    PLAN  117 

mark  of  the  common  school.  As  a  matter  of 
course,  no  professional  work  worthy  of  the  name 
can  be  taken  up  at  that  point.  The  necessary 
consequence  is,  that  the  college  must  put  the 
matriculants  upon  a  course  of  general  studies  in 
mathematics,  sciences  and  languages.  Thus  it 
comes  that  we  have  freshmen  in  colleges  em- 
ployed upon  higher  arithmetic,  penmanship, 
punctuation,  and  other  indispensable  rudiments. 
So  soon  as  possible  the  fare  is  varied  by  dash- 
ing in  a  modicum  of  agriculture  or  horticulture. 
Time  passes  on,  and  at  the  close  of  a  four- 
years'  course,  the  young  men  are  returned  to  the 
farms  as  Bachelors  of  agriculture.  I  would  not 
condemn  this  work  altogether,  though  I  think  it 
extravagant  and  distracting  to  mingle  studies  so 
unlike  and  incompatible.  It  is  useless  and  ex- 
travagant— it  is  absurd — to  undertake  the  appli- 
cation of  science  to  agriculture  before  the  science 
— the  appUahle  science — has  been  acquired.  The 
agricultural  colleges  referred  to,  cannot,  there- 
fore, become,  as  they  ought  to  become,  profes- 
sional schools,  so  long  as  they  are  engaged  in 
doing  training  work  in  the  general  studies  of  the 
high  school.  According  to  the  principle  implied 
in  this  discussion,  the  institution  of  which  I  am 
speaking  bases  the  regular  undergraduate  course 
in  agriculture  upon  the  secondary  instruction  of 
the  Elementary  Department.  All  candidates  foi 
graduation   must   have    undergone    this    instruc- 


ii8  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

tioii  here  or  elsewhere.  After  two  years  of  pro- 
fessional studies  and  exercises,  we  think  them  en- 
titled to  a  degree  in  every  way  equivalent  to  the 
first  academical  degree  of  bachelor. 

Thus  we  conform,  as  we  believe,  to  that  act  of 
Congress  which  conferred  the  endowment  for 
the  new  industrial  education.  This  statute  calls 
for  the  establishment  of  colleges, — i.  e.,  institu- 
tions of  superior  rank.  The  endowment  cannot 
be  justly  expended  in  mere  primary  and  sec- 
ondary instruction. 

We  also  respond  to  the  real  demand  of  the 
farmers.  The  Agricultural  College  was  never 
wanted  as  a  mere  farmers'  school,  in  which  their 
sons  and  daughters  could  be  taught  to  extract  the 
cube  root  and  decline  adjectives  of  three  termi- 
nations. The  real  demand  of  the  farmer  is  that 
there  be  men  trained  up  to  interrogate  science, 
as  to  its  application  to  that  great  industry  which 
is  at  the  bottom  of  all  the  industries  and  activities 
of  the  world. 

When  the  Agricultural  College  is  made  a  pro- 
fessional school,  this  work  may  begin.  The  Agri- 
cultural College  as  a  secondary  school,  however 
efficient,  can  contribute  but  scantily  to  this  end. 

It  seemed  best  to  let  the  reader  follow  the  de- 
scription of  the  ^Minnesota  plan  to  its  end.  It  was 
adopted  hastily  and  prematurely  by  a  body  of  in- 
experienced regents  reposing  undue  confidence  in  a 
youthful  executive  whose  enthusiasm  affected  them. 


THE   iMINNESOTA    PLAN  119 

He  was  himself  as  much  surprised  as  any  one  could 
be  at  their  sudden  action.  The  most  he  had  hoped 
for  was  the  opening  of  a  discussion.  He  had  not 
moderation  nor  wisdom  enough  to  counsel  delay  and 
consultation  with  colleagues.  The  faculty  were  di- 
vided; the  professors  on  the  "classical  side"  were 
opposed  to  innovation,  those  on  the  "scientific  side" 
were  warmly  favorable  to  the  plan. 

In  1872  in  response  to  demands  the  regents  gave  the 
matter  a  full  consideration.  The  members  of  the  faculty 
contributed  their  respective  views  in  writing;  the 
author  of  the  plan  defended  it  from  a  brief  to  be 
found  on  a  subsequent  page.  The  result  was  a  res- 
olution to  adhere  to  the  plan;  and  it  was  adhered 
to  for  more  than  a  decade.  Thanks  to  a  faculty 
loyal  if  not  cordial  in  its  support,  no  difficulties  of 
administration  presented  themselves  which  were  not 
easily  overcome.  Still  it  must  be  said,  there  exist- 
ed a  "feeling"  shared  by  some  teachers,  some  stu- 
dents, and  some  school  men  that  the  University  of 
Minnesota,  had  by  the  adoption  of  a  novel  scheme 
of  organization  separated  herself  from  the  goodly 
fellowship  of  American  colleges.  That  the  old 
American  aggregation  (there  was  no  system.)  of 
schools  and  colleges  could  be  improved  upon,  was 
not  easily  entertained  by  those  who  had  not  stud- 
ied the  principles  of  educational  organization,  in 
particular  of  public  education.  The  believers  in  the 
plan  were  therefore  kept  on  the  defensive. 

Dr.  Cyrus  Northrop  succeeded  to  the  presidency 
of  the  university  in  September  1884.  In  June  1885. 
the  regents  upon  his  recommendation,  by  a  simple 
resolution  regulating  the  jurisdiction  of  faculties, 
gave  the  Minnesota  plan  a  quiet  and  comfortable 
coup  de  grace.  He  had  other  objects  more  at  heart 
than    reforms    in    university    organization,    and    felt 


120  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

that  it  would  be  better  to  let  the  institution  devel- 
op along  traditional  lines.  The  author  of  the  plan 
was  quite  content  that  it  should  not  be  left  in  the 
hands  of  those  not  in  sympathy  with  its  idea  and 
purpose.  The  principle  survives  and  in  good  time 
will  have  its  fruition.  The  University  of  Chicago 
has  explicitly  recognized  it,  and  Columbia  has  im- 
plicitl}^  adopted  it. 

It  was  laid  down   in  the  introductory  part  of 
this  paper,  as  a  principle  to  be  gone  tipon  in  or- 
ganizing the  public  instruction,  that  the  system 
nutst  be  such  as  to   employ  and   encourage   all 
agencies  likely  to  engage  seriously  in  the  work. 
By  what  means,  if  by   any,  to  open  the   whole 
field  of  educational  effort  to  the  same  free  com- 
petition between  individuals  as  now  exists  in  the 
learned  and  other  professions,  is  an  alluring  prob- 
lem, but  because  it  is  not  of  immediate  practical 
importance  it  must  be  laid  aside  for  the  graver 
and   unavoidable   question,   "Where   is  the   place 
and  what  the  work  of  the  Christian  Church  in 
education?"     Let  us  meet  this  question  resolute- 
h .     Let  us  face  first  of  all  this  fact,  that  in  the 
newer  states  of  America  education  of  all  grades 
is    already   public.     The   people    have   taken   the 
whole  work  in  hand.     It  is  impossible  to  disguise 
this    fact.     It    is    equally    impossible    to    escape 
from   this    next   conclusion — that   if  the   Church 
means  to  do  any  work  in  education  which  will 
last  and  grow,  she  must  come  within  the  system 


THE   MINNESOTA   PLAN  121 

of  public   instruction.       The  institutions  of  her 
foundation    and    maintenance    must    take    their 
place  as  elements  in  whatever  system  may  hap- 
I)en  to  exist.     What  part  of  the  field  then  may 
the  Christian  forces  occupy  in  the  grand  move- 
ment ?    Not  the  primary  theater  of  the  war.    Ex- 
perience has  already  decided  that;  and  further, 
this  is  the  place  for  parental  co-operation.     Not 
the  field  of  superior,  academical  and  professional 
education,  for  that  too  the  people  have  occupied 
with  a  corps  of  observation — if  no  more.     There 
remains  but  one  province,  the  secondary  educa- 
tion.    May  the  Church  venture  upon  that?     It  is 
certain  that  in  her  present  estate  the  Church  can- 
not sustain  the  university.     It  is  useless  to  talk 
of  the  university  unless  there  is  a  prospect  of  mil- 
lions of  dollars  flowing  into  her  cofTers.     Were 
the    Church   one    in    visible    representation,    this 
might  be  expected,  but  divided  and  contending, 
her  various   sections  vainly  attempt  the   mighty 
task  of  collecting  a  university  endowment.     This 
I  may   say   while   recalling,   not  without   bitter- 
ness, the   fact  that  we  have  yet  as  a  people  to 
educate   ourselves    up   to    the   point    reached    by 
seme  Christian  benefactors  of  higher  education. 
The  people  have  resolved  to  have  the  university, 
but   the}-   have  not  as  yet    fully  appreciated  the 
magnitude    of   their    enterprise   nor    equalled    in 
nuuiificence  a  few  noble  citizens. 


122  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

If,  however,  a  Church  \\  ere  equal  to  the  main- 
tenance of  the  university,  I  cannot  see  that  she 
has  any  sufiicient  motive  for  it.     The  history  of 
American   universities   shows   that   just   as   they 
have    grown    into    consequence    they    have    out- 
grown the  spirit  of  denomination.       The  Chris- 
tian college  of  to-day   is   forced  to  hoist  at  its 
maintop  the  motto  "Christian,  but  not  sectarian." 
If  not  sectarian,  why  then  shall  the  sect  support 
it?     "Christian,  but  not  sectarian,"  is  the  watch- 
word of  the  people's  university.     The  work  of 
the  university  is  secular,  and  cannot  be  Church 
work.     It  can  only  aid  the  Church — as  Church — 
in  an  indirect  way,  by  extending  the  boundaries 
of  knowledge,  diffusing  culture,  and  arming  the 
hand   of  charity   with  new   balms   and   potions. 
Why  then  should  the  tithes  and  oft'erings  go  to 
the  cultivation  of  science  and  letters,  to  the  train- 
ing of  lawyers  and  physicians,  farmers  and  engi- 
neers?    When  a  thousand  villages  are  without 
churches  and  pastors,  shall  the  Church  found  ob- 
servatories to  study  spots  on  the  sun,  and  mil- 
lions of  men  perish  without  the  gospel? 

There  is,  however,  in  the  scope  of  the  second- 
ary education  a  work  which  may  be  regarded  as 
distinctively  Christian,  I  have,  with  some  empha- 
sis, advocated  the  full  development  of  the  sec- 
ondary education  for  the  purpose  of  bringing 
that  instruction  to  the  doors  of  the  people,  and 
into  close  relation  with  homes.     Two  practical 


THE   MINNESOTA    PLAN  123 

difficulties  here  present  themselves.  The  first, 
that  there  is  a  large  body  of  youth  who  have  lit- 
erally no  homes, — there  are  many  who  are  worse 
off  than  that, — who  have  fathers  and  mothers, 
but  no  parents.  There  are  also  sons  and  daugh- 
ters of  persons  holding  public  offices,  military 
and  civil,  the  duties  of  which  carry  them  to  sta- 
tions remote  from  schools  and  civilization ;  there 
are  children  of  persons  traveling  or  living  tran- 
siently in  public  houses.  The  number  of  children 
thus  incapacitated  from  resorting  to  the  public 
high  schools  from  homes,  will  be  found  upon  re- 
flection to  be  very  great.  For  this  class  the  board- 
ing school  is  the  proper  resource.  What  work  now- 
I  ask  can  the  Church  better  do  than  to  thrown 
her  sheltering  arms  around  these  homeless  ones, 
and  train  them  up  to  useful  and  blameless  liv- 
ing? There  is  room  then  in  the  system  for  the 
Christian  boarding  school.  I  cannot  pass  from 
this  topic  without  stopping  to  advertise  to  this 
national  convention  of  teachers  that  our  State 
of  Minnesota  presents  to-day  the  unique  and  un- 
paralleled spectacle  of  the  best  boys'  boarding 
school  in  the  northwest,  built  up  in  nine  years 
on  the  ruins  of  a  paper  university.  Let  me  say 
proposed  ruins,  for  that  university — thanks  to 
one  wise  and  far-seeing  man — never  lifted  the 
first  stone  into  daylight. 


124  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

When  Henry  Benjamin  Whipple  came  to  Fari- 
bault in  1859  to  begin  his  work  as  Bishop  of  Min- 
nesota, he  found  a  Httle  wooden  "shack,"  in  which 
a  little  primary  school  was  kept.  Over  the  door 
was  a  smart  gilded  sign  "Bishop  Seabury  Univer- 
sity." One  of  his  first  acts  was  to  take  a  carpen- 
ter's hammer  and  pull  down  that  sign.  His  wiser 
plan,  which  he  presently  put  into  operation,  was  to 
build  and  organize  a  splendid  academy,  in  which  he 
could  proselyte  to  his  heart's  content.  In  a  univer- 
sity he   could  not  freely  make   Episcopalians. 

The  other  difificulty  had  in  mind  is  this,  that  the 
high  school  of  any  grade  of  development  is  pos- 
sible only  in  the  cities  and  larger  villages.  There 
are  fifty  smaller  villages,  more  or  less,  in  Min- 
nesota, which  cannot  support  a  high  school  in 
fifty  years.  How  shall  these  places,  the  most 
favorable  perhaps  for  the  development  of  schol- 
arly ambition,  be  supplied  with  secondary 
schools?  The  answer  is,  by  means  of  academies, 
to  be  mainly  supported  by  the  people  of  the  vicin- 
ity, but  aided  liberally  by  the  state.  Such  acad- 
emies, public  in  the  sense  of  complying  with  the 
conditions  necessary  to  insure  the  just  expendi- 
ture of  the  public  funds,  would  habitually  fall 
under  the  control  of  some  Christian  body,  who 
would  be  responsible  to  the  patrons  for  the  judi- 
cious training  of  their  children.  The  Christian 
academy  may  thus  have  its  place  in  the  system 
of  ptiblic  instruction.  There  is  one  such  in  our 
own  state,  scarcely  known  beyond  the  bounds  of 


THE   MINNESOTA    PLAN  125 

a  beautiful  hamlet  nestling-  beside  Lake  St.  Croix, 
which  sends  more  students  to  this  University  than 
any  high  school  in  the  state  except  three  or  four. 
The  Christian  academy  can  do  that  work  which 
most  of  all  the  Church  wants  done,  the  work  of 
training  the  growing  and  impressible  youth.  The 
time  for  training  is  past  when  the  youth  has  gone 
to  college.  Happy  is  that  young  man  who  leaves 
school  with  his  principles  and  habits  so  fixed  and 
grounded  that  the  temptations  of  college  life  as- 
sail his  soul  in  vain. 

The  admirable  little  acadeiiij-  at  Afton  on  the  St. 
Croi.x  was  closed  some  years  ago.  It  is  still  the 
speaker's  opinion  that  academies  of  high  rank  are 
needed,  and  may  properly  be  countenanced  and  aid- 
ed by  religious  bodies.  No  better  examples  are 
needed  of  the  usefulness  of  such  schools  than  the 
Pillsbury  Academy  at  Owatonna,  the  College  of  St. 
Thomas  in  St.  Paul  and  Shattuck  School  at  Fari- 
bault. 

The  hour  will  not  permit  me  to  speak  of  a  third 
sort  of  Christian  work  in  education — that  of 
establishing  Christian  college  homes  around  the 
State  universities,  and  thus  to  restore  the  college 
to  its  original  function.  In  such  establishments 
a  church  may  gather  its  sons  and  daughters, 
maintain  its  favorite  cultus  and  ritual,  and  thus 
gain  to  herself  all  the  advantages  of  a  college  in 
the  modern  sense,  while  saving  the  whole  cost 
of  faculty,  library,  apparatus,  laboratories,  etc. 


126  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

This  idea  was  put  into  operation  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Michigan  some  years  after.  Harris  hall  has 
served  its  purpose  with  great  acceptance.  Roman 
Catholic  friends  have  acquired  a  plot  of  ground 
near  the  University  of  Minnesota  on  which  it  is 
purposed  to  build  a  home  for  the  accommodation 
of  students  of  that  ancient  faith.  The  Episcopalians 
have  established  a  "University  House"  with  a  clergyman 
in  charge,  as  a  center  of  influence  and  co-operation. 

I  have  said  that  the  boarding  school  and  the 
academy  may  be  Christian,  meaning  Christian  in 
the  lower  sense  of  being  actually  in  the  hands  of 
a  Christian  body,  as  a  corporation.  There  is, 
however,  a  higher  sense  in  which  these  and  all 
schools  may  be  Christian.  There  are  many 
schools,  of  many  grades,  which  are  Christian  be- 
cause they  are  owned  and  operated  by  Christian 
men  and  women,  but  are  not  controlled  by  any 
conference,  synod  or  council.  In  this  same  sense, 
all  schools  may  be  Christian.  If  the  Church  do 
her  duty  there  will  be  no  other.  The  schools  of 
a  Christian  people  will  be  Christian.  The 
Church  might  be  more  than  content  to  surrender 
entirely  any  immediate  management  of  schools 
in  order  to  be  at  leisure  to  attend  to  the  grander 
w  ork  of  molding  and  inspiring  all  the  educational 
agencies.  The  Church  may  then  lay  down  the 
text-book,  and  retire  from  the  school-room,  as 
pedagogue,  only  to  reappear  in  the  clouds  of  a 
new    heaven,    with     angelic    belongings,    "with 


THE    MIXXESOTA    PLAX  127 

power  and  great  glory,"  a  messenger  from  above 
to  inform,  to  hallow,  to  sanctify  and  consecrate 
all  the  agencies  of  human  culture. 

It  took  more  than  two  hundred  years  for  mod- 
ern Christianity  to  learn  the  lesson  that  her 
power  over  the  nation  would  be  greatest  when 
Church  and  State  should  be  organically  severed. 
Have  we  not  yet  to  learn  the  further  and  more 
blessed  truth  that  the  Church  will  only  then  be 
mightiest  in  culture,  wdien  she  has  surrendered 
all  mere  schooling  to  the  people? 

Appendixes  to  the  foregoing  address. 

Appendix  i. 

In  1872  the  Board  of  Regents  deemed  it  wise  to 
review  their  action  in  adopting  the  Minnesota  plan. 
The  following  brief  was  used  by  President  Folwell  in 
its  defense.    The  decision  was  to  adhere  to  the  plan. 

I. 
General  Considerations  had  in  view  at  the  time  the 
the  question  of  organization  came  up. 

1.  The  great  awakening  to  the  supreme  importance 
of  education  in  general.  Witness,  the  development  of 
the  free  schools,  the  munificent  gifts  in  the  aid  of  edu- 
cation, of  Cornell,  Peabody,  Pardee,  Packer.  Williston 
and  others,  and  the  State  and  N^ational  grants  to  high- 
er institutions. 

2.  An  immense  increase  of  youth  demanding  high- 
er education  : — not,  however,  of  those  looking  forward 
to  the  so-called  "learned  professions,"  but  a  number 
much  greater  preparing  to  be  engineers,  merchants,  ar- 
chitects, chemists,  miners  and  metallurgists,  pharmaceu- 
tists, dyers,  manufacturers,  merchants,  navigators,  jour- 
nalists, naturalist-^,  astronomers,  and  last,  not  least,  hor- 
ticulturists  and   agricultinnsts  ;   wherefore, 

3.  The  general  cou'^cnt  that  the  old  college,  however 
admirably  suited  to  other  wants,  does  not  meet  the  de- 


128  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

mands  of  these  classes.     In  proof  of  the  correctness  of 
this  view, 

4.  The  establishment  of  numerous  polytechnic 
schools,  such  as,  e.  g., 

The  Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute,  Troy,  N.  Y. 

The  Sheffield  Scientific  School  of  Yale  College,  New 
Haven.  Conn. 

The   Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  Boston. 

The  Columbia  College  School  of  Mines,  New  York 
city. 

The    Stevens    Institute   of   Technology,   Hoboken,    N. 
J.,  &c. 
Likewise 

5.  The  grant  by  Congress  in  1862  of  9.000.000  acres 
of  public  lands  to  endow  colleges,  intended  to  provide 
"liberal  and  practical  education  for  the  industrial  class- 
es" :  and  under  this  grant  the  establishment  of  Agri- 
cultural and  Polytechnic  Colleges  in  many  States  ;  such 
as,  e.  g.. 

The  Cornell  University. 
The  Kentucky  University. 
The    Illinois   Industrial   Universitv, 
The   Agricultural    Colleges   of   Massachusetts.    Michi- 
gan. Pennsylvania,  &c.. — but  further. 

6.  The  voluntary  exile  of  hundreds  of  our  young 
men  to  foreign  countries  in  search  of  culture  not  to  be 
had   on   this    side   of  the   Atlantic. 

7.  The  importation,  chiefly  by  these  persons  and 
through  their  writings,  of  foreign  university  ideas,  tra- 
ditions, customs  and  terminology,  which,  falling  in  with 
the  general  sentiment  favoring  a  broader  development 
of  our  higher  education,  had  led  to 

8.  The  establishment  of  many  institutions  called 
Universities,    in    expectation    "of    thinsrs    hoped    for." 

9.  The  general  acknowledged  failure  of  our  uni- 
versities fo  deserve  that  title,  owing  chiefly  to  lack  of 
material,  i.  e..  of  students  properly  fitted  for  tmiver- 
sity  work.  Therefore, 

10.  The  need,  as  a  condition  precedent  to  the  ex- 
istence of  a  genuine  university,  of  a  large  number  of 
academic  schools  of  high  rank,  capable  of  fitting  stu- 
dents to  enter  unon  the  studies  nroperly  belonging  to 
the  university.  Stich  schools,  called  "secondary,"  exist 
in  all  countries  in  which  universities  exist. 


THE    MINNESOTA    PLAN  129 

II.  An  EXCESSIVE  NU.MiiEK  OF  COLLEGES,  insufficiently 
endowed,  indifferently  officered,  scantily  attended,  "hin- 
dering rather  than  aiding  one  another  by  their  jealous 
rivalries,  and  wasting  the  most  precious  resources  of 
the    country."' 

12  In  these  colleges  a  general  breaking  down  of 
discipline,  and  a  cheapening  of  degrees,  things  not  to 
be  prevented  in  institutions  demoralized  by  ruinous 
competition. 

13.  In  these  colleges  also,  an  overloading  of  the 
course  of  study  in  the  attempt  to  adapt  the  college, 
with    its    single   curriculum,    to    modern    demands.     But 

14.  A  strong  and  decided  reaction  against  the 
tendency  to  overcrowd  the  college  course,  coinciding 
with 

15.  A  relaxation  from  the  traditional  custom  of 
forcing  students  over  a  single  course,  as   shown  in 

16.  The  addition  of  so-called  "scientific  courses"  of 
study  into  many  colleges  and  universities,  or  in 

17.  The  introduction  of  so-called  optional  or  elec- 
tiz'c  studies  and  courses  of  study :  in  connection  with 
which 

18.  The  remarkable  fact  that  the  end  of  the  second 
(or  Sophomore)  year  of  the  old  college  course  has  been 
very  generally  pitched  upon  as  the  proper  point  at  which 
to  admit  optional  studies  and  courses,  thereby  indicat- 
ing  that 

19.  Some  university  work  proper  begins  now  in 
America  (and  will  for  a  long  time  continue  to  begin) 
with  the  Junior  year,  and  that  studies  sliould  be  assort- 
ed accordin^ily.    Wherefore 

20.  Universities  must  provide  for  dropping  the  work 
of  the  first  two  college  years,  belonging  by  its  nature 
to  the  secondary  schools. 

21.  The  higher  secondary  education  cnil)racing  the 
first  two  college  years,  has  been  found  to  be  an  excel- 
lent preparation  for  the  "industrial  professions,'"  and  it 
is  also  sufficient  for  the  mere  practitioner  in  the  so- 
called    learned    professions,   although    in    fact 

22.  The  law  and  medical  schools,  receiving  students 
with  merely  the  primary  education  of  the  common 
school,  are  turning  out  under  the  spur  of  sharp  compe- 
tition hundreds  of  graduates  every  year,  without  culture, 
without  science — to  the  great  infamy  of  the  profession^;. 
AVherefore 


I30  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 


23.  The  impending  necessity  that  some  public  en- 
dowed institution  not  depending  upon  tuition  money 
for  support,  should  by  requiring  as  the  mininmm  prepar- 
ation the  secondary  education  indicated,  rescue  the  legal 
and  medical  professions  from  the  low  condition  into 
which  they  have  confessedly   fallen. 

24.  For  lack  of  suitable  secondary  or  academic 
schools  to  prepare  students,  the  agricultural  colleges 
have  very  generally  been  forced  down  into  the  sec- 
ondary field,  and  been  obliged  to  offer  courses  of  study 
made  up  mainly  of  academic  branches  with  merely  a 
seasoning  of  agricultural   studies.     Whereas 

25.  The  agricultural  college  ought  to  be  a  special 
professional  school,  analagous  to  law,  medical,  and  en- 
gineering schools,  to  which  students  shall  bring  a  suffi- 
cient preparation  of  general  and  disciplinary  studies, 
and  it  is  only  as  such  that  the  agricultural  college  can 
form  a  co-ordinate  department  of  the  university. 

26.  The  actual  foundation  and  maintenance  of  uni- 
versities by  States  is  an  experiment,  the  success  of 
which  is  not  expected  by  some,  and  not  desired  by 
many  others. 

27.  The  Christian  Church, — under  various  denomi- 
nations,— has  immense  investments  in  higher  education, 
and  under  her  auspices. 

28.  Private  individuals  and  corporate  bodies  will 
continue  to  endow  and  support  educational  establish- 
ments.    Nevertheless  there  exists 

29.  A  powerful  tendency  in  the  direction  of  com- 
prehensive, not  to  say  exclusive,  state  and  national  ef- 
fort to  control  education  and  to  develop  complete 
systems  of  schools  culminating  in  universities.  Where- 
fore, 

30.  The  evident  need  of  such  an  organization  of 
education  by  competent  authority  as  will  invite  and 
ensure  the  co-operation  of  all  parties  interested  in  the 
business,  and  secure  economy  and  efficiency :  accord- 
ingly 

31.  The  State  University  should  be  so  organized 
as  to  form  an  integral  part  of  a  State  system  of  pub- 
lic education,  while  free  scope  and  room  should  be 
allowed  for  the  legitimate  efforts  of  all  private  and 
corporate   agencies. 

y2.     The    higher    education    of    women, — a    problem 


THE    MINNESOTA    PLAN  131 

not  to  be  put  aside  when  public  funds  form  the  'endow- 
ment of  a  proposed  university. 

IL 
Local  Considekatioxs  :       State   of    Minnesota,   a.  d. 
1870. 

1.  An  act  of  the  Legislature  approved  February  18. 
1868,  "Re-organizing  the  University  and  establishing  an 
Agricultural  College  therein." — 

2.  The  Board  of  Regents  required  by  this  act  to 
establish  "five  or  more  Colleges  or  Departiuents;  that 
is  to  say, 

"A  Department   of   Elementary    Instruction ; 

"A  College  of  Science.  Literature  and  the  Arts; 

"A  College  of  Agriculture  and   the   Mechanic   Arts; 

"A  College  or  Department  of  Law  : 

"A  College   or   Department   of   Medicine." 

3.  An  endowment  of  public  lands,  consisting  on  the 
one  hand  of  University  lands  proper  and  on  the  other 
of  "Agricultural  College"  lands  in  the  proportion  of 
about  3  to  5. 

4.  An  evident  and  undoubted  disposition  on  the  part 
of  the  Board  of  Regents  to  devote  the  funds  to  accrue 
from  the  Agricultuural  College  lands  with  the  utmost 
fidelity  to  the  object  named  in  the  act  of  endowment 
passed  by  Congress.  July  2.  1862.  As  an  earnest  of  tliis 
disposition, 

5.  The  purchase  of  a  farm  for  experimental  pur- 
poses and  the  election  of  professors  of  agriculture, 
military  science  and  civil  engineering. 

6.  A  provisional  organization,  in  some  respects  ex- 
cellent, but  lacking  in  thoroughness — the  various  de- 
partm.ents  forming  rather  a  mere  association  than  an 
organism.  Indeed  the  separate  establishment  of  the 
colleges  or  departments  demanded  by  the  statute  was 
quite  lost   sight  of. 

7.  Free  Tuition  in  all  departments:  small  annual 
charge  for  "incidentals"  only. 

8.  No  dormitory  system,  but  students  of  both  sexes 
left  free  to  choose  their  residences  in  the  city. 

9.  A  faculty  of  ten  persons,  including  the  presi- 
dent. 

10.  An  attendance  of  185  students — about  one-half 
of  them  young  women. 

11.  Thirteen     students,     ranking     provisionally     as 


132  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

Freshmen,    of    whom   probably    but    five    were    of   that 
rank. 

12.  A  large  number  of  students  looking  forward  to 
polytechnic  studies,  a  great  demand  for  instruction  in 
the  German  language,  and  an  unexpectedly  large  num- 
ber of   classical    students. 

13.  But  one  denominational  college,  partially  devel- 
oped,  in  actual  existence  in  the  State. 

14.  A  very  small  number  of  fitting  schools  (3-5)  in 
private  or  denominational  hands  and  all  young  and 
feeble. 

15.  A  considerable  number  of  excellent  public  high 
schools,  ably  officered  and  ready  to  co-operate  actively 
with  the  Liniversity,  but  as  yet  not  having  generally 
adopted  courses   of  study  preparatory  to  it.  Hence 

16.  The  evident  necessity  of  so  planning  the  work  of 
the  University  as  to  begin  where  the  high  schools 
should  leave  off. 

Such  was  "the  situation"  when  in  June,  1870,  the 
question  of  organization  came  definitely  before  the 
Board   of  Regents. 

III. 
The  plan  actually  adopted  was  the  following,  being 
the  report  of  a  special  committee : 

THE   UNIVERSITY    OF    :\IIXXESOTA. 

PLAN    OF    ORGANIZATION. 

"There  shall  be  established  in  the  University  of  Min- 
nesota, five  or  inore  Colleges  or  Departments;  that  is 
to  say,  a  Department  of  Elementary  Instruction;  a  Col- 
lege of  Science,  Literature  and  the  Arts;  a  College  of 
Agriculture  and  the  ISIechanic  Arts,  including  Military 
Tactics;  a  College  or  Department  of  Law;  also  a  College 
or  Department  of  Medicine." — [Laws  of  Minnesota,   1868. J 

"  *  *  *  to  teach  such  branclTes  of  learning  as  are  related 
to  Agriculture  and  the  ^Mechanic  Arts,  in  sucli  manner 
as  the  Legislatui-es  of  the  States  may  respectively  pre- 
scribe, in  order  to  promote  the  liberal  and  practical  edu- 
cation of  the  industiial  classes  in  the  several  pursuits 
and  piofessions  of  life,  without  excluding  other  scientific 
and  classical  studies,  and  including  military  tactics." — ■ 
TAct  of  Congress  granting  land  for  Agricultural  Colleges. 
1862.] 

A  three  years'  preparatory  department  has  been  in 
operation  since  1866.  Twentv  students,  most  of  whom 
h'-ive  passed  through  this  Department,  are  now  pursuing 
the  studies  of  freshmen  in  science  or  arts. 

It  is  proposed  to  drop,  as  soon  as  may  be  practicable, 
lire  first  year  of  this  preparatory  course,  and  to  add 
to  the  two  remaining  years,  other  two  years,  correspond- 


THE    MINNESOTA    PLAN  133 

ing  to  the  freshman  and  sophomore  years  of  our  or- 
dinary colleges,  thus  forming  a  department  to  be  called 
"The  Collegiate  Department;"  of  which  the  promi- 
nent features  shall  be  these,  viz : 

1.  Two  or  more  parallel  courses  of  general  scien- 
tific and  classical  studies,  designed  to  prepare  students 
either  to  enter  one  of  the  professional  schools,  or  the 
higher  academic  course  of  the   University. 

2.  These  courses  to  be  open  to  both  sexes  alike. 

3.  A  thorough  system  of  discipline,  by  means  of 
marking  system,  military  drill,  gymnastics,  etc. 

_  4.  All  students  to  be  instructed  in  those  principles 
of  agriculture  (including  horticulture),  the  mechanic 
arts,  and  hj-giene,  wmch  every  "educated  man"  or  wom- 
an needs  to  know. 

5.  No  degrees  to  be  conferred  at  the  end  of  these 
courses,  but  only  a  certificate  of  fitness  to  proceed  with 
some  proper  University  course. 

6.  A  shorter  course  of  scientific  studies  for  students 
preparing  to  enter  the  colleges  of  agriculture,  medicine, 
etc. 

The  theory  of  this  Collegiate  Department  is,  that 
the  student  having  successfully  pursued  one  or  other 
of  its  prescribed  courses,  will  be  suitably  prepared  to 
enter  the  College  of  Science,  Literature,  and  tlie 
.Arts."  or  the  College  of  that  profession  to  which  he 
intends  devoting  his  life.  It  is  too  much  to  ask  now. 
in  a  new  country,  that  candidates  for  agriculture,  law. 
medicine,  or  business,  shall  generally  have  taken  the  de- 
gree of  bachelor  of  arts. 

It  is  not  thought  necessary  to  enlarge  upon  the  details 
of  the  organization  of  the  professional  and  technical 
schools,  the  number  and  kinds  of  which  must  depend 
upon  the  means  of  the  University  and  the  public  de- 
mands. The  first  of  them  to  be  organized  will  be 
that  of  "Agriculture  and  the  Mechanic  Arts."  The 
higher  acadeiuic  deoartment  will  correspond  nearly  with 
the  junior  and  senior  years  of  the  Atuerican  colleges, 
t.\cei)t  that  there  shall  he  entire  acadenu'c  freedom  in 
the  selection  of  courses.  Xo  degrees  shall  be  conferred 
e.xcept  after  successful  e.xaminations.  and  that  to  some 
extent  upon  subjects  upon  which  no  direct  instruction 
shall   have  been   given. 

It  is  a  part  of  the  plan  that  from  year  to  year  some 
branch  or  branches   shall  be  dropped  off  the   lower  end 


134  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

of  the  Collegiate  courses,  so  that  at  length,  the  whole 
Department  having  been  relegated  to  the  schools  below, 
shall  "expire  by  limitation,"  leaving  the  federated  clas- 
sical, scientific  and  professional  schools  of  the  Uni- 
versity proper.  In  fact  the  Collegiate  Department  is 
intended  to  be  a  model   "Secondary  School." 


The   following  diagram   will    suggest,   though    inade- 
quately,  the   relations  of  the   Departments : 


Primary 
School 


Collegiate 
Department 


B.  L. 
B.  AG. 
B.  A. 
B.  M. 
B.  E. 


The  essential  features  of  the  plan  appear  to  be: 

1.  That  while  offering  the  old  college  course  and 
discipline  in  its  best  form  to  the  literary  and  profes- 
sional classes,  the  University  will  provide  for  the  in- 
dustrial classes  that  "liberal  and  practical  education" 
contemplated  in  the  laws  which  have  conferred  her 
endowments. 

2.  The  separation  of  the  natural  epochs  of  second- 
ary and  superior  education,  and  the  ultimate  liberation 
of  the  University  from  the  elementary  work  belonging 
to  the  former.  Coinciding  with  this  separation,  an  ad- 
vantageous assortment  of  studies,  methods  and  disci- 
pline suitable  to  the  two  periods  respectively.  As  a 
further   result 

3.  The  simplification  of  the  question  of  "mixed  edu- 
cation." 

4.  The  actual  elevation  of  the  professional  schools. 
by  requiring  of  candidates  for  degrees  a  good  general 
education,  as  a  condition  for  entrance,  while,  not  in- 
sisting in  theory  on  the  impossible  demand  that  all 
should  have  gone  over  the  whole  of  the  old  college 
cotirse. 

5.  The  elevatio.n  of  the  colleges  of  agriculture  and  the 
mechanic    arts    to    equal    rank    and    standing    with    the 


THE    MIXXESOTA    PLAN  135 

law    and    UKclical    colleges,    and    the    scparatit)n   of    the- 
studies  and  exercises  properly  belonging  to  them,  from 
the    elementary    branches    taught,    or   Avhich    should    be 
taught,  in  the  primary  and  secondary  schools,  and  which 
it   is  not  the  business   of  colleges  to  teach. 

6.  That  while  proposing  to  provide  instruction  on 
the  most  liberal  scale  in  all  subjects  proper  to  be  taught 
in  a  genuine  university,  the  institution  shall  not  offer 
an  unlimited  "option"  of  studies,  but  rather  a  suitable 
variety  of  well-ordered  courses  of  study,  leading  to 
appropriate    degrees. 

7.  The   total   abolition    of  all   honorary   degrees. 

8.  A  close  and  organic  connection  with  the  system 
of  public  schools,  permitting  and  inviting  the  co-opera- 
tion of  all  private  and  corporate  institutions.  "Tlie  I'ni- 
z'crsity  begins,  for  the  time  being,  n-herever  the  High 
School  leaves  off." 

g.  That  while  the  main  features  of  the  plan  may 
remain  unchanged,  it  admits  of  great  freedom  in  the 
arrangement  of  details  to  suit  varying  conditions  of 
times   and   circtnustanccs. 

10.  A  faithful  adherence  to  the  letter  and  spirit  of 
the  laws,  .state  ajid  national,  which  have  established 
and  endowed  the  University,  and  Avhich  contemplate 
it  as  a  federation  of  literary,  scientific,  professional. 
and  technical  or  industrial  Colleges,  each  imparting 
liberal    and   practical   education. 

Note.— It  is  a  necessary  corollary  of  this  plan  of 
organization,  that  the  University  work  be  extended 
beyond  the  baccalaureate  graduation,  as  soon  as  may 
be  practicable,  by  the  addition  of  studies  or  course's 
of  study  leading  to  the  master's  degree  or  the  doc- 
torate. 

Appendix   2. 

opinions  of  distinguished  american  educators. 

[Received,  along  with  others  of  similar  import,  in 
answer  to  a  printed  circular  letter  issued  in  February. 
1870,  setting  forth  the  then  proposed  plan.] 

President  Porter  and  others,  of  Yale  College: — 
"The  undersigned  having  had  their  attention  called  to 
the  proposed  oreanizatiou  of  the  University  of  Minne- 
sota, as  set  forth  by  President  Folwell,  have  been  im- 
pressed with  its  adnntation  to  the  wants  of  a  new 
state,  its  harmonv  with  the  work  of  other  educational 
institutions    in    Mimiesota,    and    its   just    recognition    of 


136  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

the  value  of  literary,  scientific  and  professional  culture." 
(Signed)     Noah   Porter,  President  of  Yale  College, 

D.    C.    GiLMAN, 

Wm.   D.  Whitney, 

Professors  of  Yale  College. 

The  undersigned  agree  with  the  foregoing  expression 
of  opinion. 

(Signed) 

James  Hadlev,   Professor  of  Greek, 
George  F.  Barker,  Professor  of  Chemistry, 
Wm.    H.    Brewer,    Professor   of  Agriculture, 
Thomas   R.  Lounsbury,  Professor  of  English. 

President  Hopkins,  of  Williams  College : — "The  gen- 
eral plan  seems  to  me  judicious,  and  I  cannot  think 
you  will  find  difficulty  in  adjusting  it  to  your  wants 
and   means   as    they   shall   be    revealed." 

President  White,  of  Cornell  University : — "Your 
plan  is  interesting,  and  in  view  of  the  peculiarities  of 
your  immediate  education  in  the  state,  seems  to  be 
excellent." 

President  Frieze,  of  the  University  of  Michigan : — 
"I  sincerely  hope  that  you  may  be  able  to  realize  your 
plan  for  the  development  of  a  University.  I  can  see 
no  deficiency  in  jt.  *  *  *  It  is  certainly  correct  in 
principle ;  and  I  am  convinced  that  America  will  never 
have  a  University  until  some  of  our  institutions  adopt 
a  course  similar  to  that  you  propose." 

President  Morton,  of  the  Stevens  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology : — "I  can   heartily  approve  of  your  course." 

President  Read,  of  the  University  of  Missouri : — 
"Your  plan  meets  my  entire  approval.  *  *  *  You 
have   the   correct   view  of  agricultural   education." 

President  Angell,  of  the  University  of  Michigan, 
says : — "A  great  point  will  be  gained  when  we  have 
carried  secondary  education  up  to  the  mark  you  have 
set.  I  cannot  but  applaud  your  courage  in  attempting 
the  experiment  in  a  new  state  like  yours.  *  *  *  j 
do  most  earnestly  wish  the  highest  measure  of  success 
to  your  praiseworthy  efifort." 

President  Chadbourne,  of  the  University  of  Wiscon- 
sin : — "Your  plan  shows  that  you  understand  the 
siHiation  fully,  and  that  your  object  is  to  organize 
t'''e  Universitv  to  meet  the  present  wants  of  the  state, 
giving  it,  at  the  same  time,  the  conditions  of  growth 
as    new   demands   are   made.       *     *     *     I    like   the   plan 


THE    AIINNESOTA   PLAN  137 

because  it  seems  to  me  to  aim  at  making  the  Univer- 
sity supplement  the  common  schools ;  and  it  should 
not  shrink  from  humble  work,  while  that  is  neces- 
sary on  account  of  the  defect  of  the  schools."' 

Dr.  J.  M.  Gregory,  President  of  the  Illinois  Indus- 
trial University: — "You  know  I  am  not  an  extremist, 
any  more  than  yourself,  and  I  most  heartily  approve 
of  your  plans,  which  have  for  their  aim  to  hold  fast 
all  that  is  good  in  the  past,  while  you  gain  all  the  new 
good    the    present    offers." 

Rev.  A.  P.  Peabody,  D.  D..  of  Harvard  University:— 
"I  want  to  express  my  sincere  and  gratified  interest 
in  the  plan  of  your  University.  I  think  you  have 
placed  your  elective  system  just  where  it  ought  to 
stand.  Up  to  the  term  corresponding  to  the  Sopho- 
more year,  the  required  course  will  no  more  than  fit 
a  student  to  make  an  intelligent  and  judicious  choice, 
and  the  whole  previous  period  is  needed  for  studies 
in  which  every  student  ought  to  be  proficient." 

Rev.  Dr.  Wilson,  of  Cornell  University,  Profes- 
sor of  Mental  and  Moral  Philosophy : — "I  express  my 
approval  of  it  in  general  without  reserve.*  *  *  *  It 
would  enable  us  to  put  the  first  and  second  year  men — 
preparing  for  the  University  courses  proper — under  a 
regimen  and  training  such  as  boys  need,  and  at  the 
same  time  allow  the  University  men  the  liberty  for 
wdiich  men  only  are  fitted.  *  *  *  it  would  allow  us 
in  practice  to  take  advantage  of  the  difference  between 
the  recitation  and  the  lecture  systems,  and  to  use  the 
former  almost  exclusively  in  the  preparatory  or  Col- 
legiate course,  and  to  make  the  most  of  the  lecture 
system  in  the  University  course  where  alone  it  can  be 
used  with  advantage,  and  where  it  is  incomparably 
superior  to  the  recitation   system." 

Rev.  Dr.  Kendrick.  of  the  University  of  Rochester, 
Professor  of  Greek:  "I  am  glad  to  see  your  young 
State  adopting  a  plan  so  comprehensive  and  liberal. 
*  *  *  The  general  plan  seems  to  me  unexceptionable 
and  excellent.  The  thousand  questions  of  detail  will 
have  to  be  settled  by  experience." 

Dr.  Asa  Gray,  of  Harvard  University,  Professor  of 
Botany: — "I  can  .say  in  general,  that  your  plan  seems 
to  me  well  considered,  and  we  wi^h  ynn  every  suc- 
cess." 


138  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

Dr.  E.  W.  Hilgard,  of  the  University  of  Mississippi, 
Professor  of  Agriculture :— "I  have  read  attentively,  and 
with  great  satisfaction,  the  various  documents  concern- 
ing the  proposed  organization  of  your  University. 
-  *  *  I  cannot  omit  to  express  to_  you,  in  general, 
my  entire  concurrence  in  your  views." 

Hon.  Wm.  T.  Harris,  Superintendent  of  Schools,  St. 
Louis,  Mo. : — "Your  views  and  plans  seem  to  me  to  be 
very  catholic   and   very  practical." 

Rev.  W.  W.  Washburn,  late  Principal  of  the  Prepar- 
atory Department  of  the  University  of  Minnesota: — 
"In  your'  scheme  of  organization,  you  have  compre- 
hended the  actual  situation  of  affairs,  and  provided  for 
the  wants  of  that  new  state  very  fully.  You  have 
crystallized  and  put  into  admirable  form  a  thought  that 
has  often  presented  itself  to  my  mind,  i.  e.,  that  the 
University  courses  branch  at  the  close  of  the  Sopho- 
more  year." 

Professor  Wm.  F.  Phelps,  Principal  of  the  First 
State  Normal  School,  Winoua : — "I  have  studied  with 
much  interest  the  courses  of  study  and  plan  of  opera- 
tions laid  down  for  the  University  of  Minnesota.  From 
these  examinations  I  feel  prepared  to  say  that  they 
seem  to  me  to  be  well  considered,  judicious,  and  in  har- 
mony with  the  most  enlightened  views  of  Higher  Edu- 
cation, as  entertained  by  our  best  thinkers.  Time  and 
experience  may  make  minor  changes  in  details  expe- 
dient, but  on  the  whole  your  plans  are,  I  believe,  most 
wisely  conceived. 

Professor  Jas.  R.  Boise,  Department  of  Greek,  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago: — "You  have  a  noble  work  before 
you,  and  I  am  glad  you  understand  so  well  the  im- 
portance and  the  nature  of  your  task.  Your  view-s  ap- 
pear to  me  to  be   enlightened  and  liberal." 


THE    MINNESOTA    PLAN  139 

Appendix  3. 
later  commendatory  letters. 


New  York,  March  i,  1884. 
My  dear  sir : 

Your  letter  reaches  me  just  as  I  am  returning  to 
England,  I  wisli  I  could  have  come  to  MinneapoHs, 
but  in  the  summer  I  read  in  a  newspaper  an  address 
of  yours  on  University  education,  and  had  the  pleasure 
of  finding  that  you  took  all  the  points  which  I  most 
wish  to  see  taken.  You  are  perfectly  right  in  saying 
that  secondary  instruction  is  the  weak  thing  here,  and 
that  it  is  important  to  mark  this  ofif  more  clearly  from 
the  superior  instruction.  But  it  seems  to  me,  besides, 
that  your  degree-granting  bodies  are  far,  far  too  nu- 
merous. 

I   remain,   my   dear   sir,   most  truly  yours, 

Matthew  Arnold. 
President  Fohvell. 


140  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 


President's  Room,  Oct.  i6,  1902. 
Columbia  University  in  the  city  of  New  York, 
Dear  Mr.   Folwell : 

I  have  read  with  great  interest  and  pleasure  your  let- 
ter of  the  15th  and  the  valuable  article  which  ac- 
companies it,  and  congratulate  you  on  the  prescience 
which  led  you  to  hold  the  views  so  long  ago. 

With  best  wishes,  I  am  cordially  yours, 

Nicholas  Murray  Butler. 


The  University  of  Chicago, 

August  2,  1909. 
My  dear  Dr.  Folwell : 

I  distinctly  remember  placing  in  the  hands  of  Presi- 
dent Harper  the  address  to  which  you  refer.  I  can- 
not recall  the  phraseology.  I  remember  simply  that  he 
expressed  high  approval  and  appreciation  of  the  prin- 
ciples involved.  My  opinion  is  that  your  plan  was  a 
perfectly  sound  one.  It  happened  to  be  ahead  of  the 
times,  and  therefore  could  not  be  carried  out.  It  is 
still  somewhat  ahead  of  the  times,  but  I  can  see  many 
signs  of  approaching  changes  which  will  make  it,  I 
believe,  at  no  long  distance  in  the  future  entirely 
practicable. 

With  cordial  regards,  I  am  very  truly  yours, 

Harry  Pratt  Judson. 


THE    MINNESOTA    PLAN  141 

President  D.  S.  Jordan  in  World's  Work,  July,  1908. 
*  *  *  the  most  important  movement  by  far  is  that 
towards  the  differentiation  of  the  university  from  the 
college,  by  the  removal  from  the  university  of  the  "jun- 
ior college,"  the  work  of  the  present  freshman  and 
sophomore  years. 

This  would  at  once  make  the  college  a  support  rath- 
er than  a  rival  of  the  university.  It  would  enable  the 
university  to  throw  its  whole  strength  into  technical, 
professional,  and  research  training.  It  would  tend  to 
develop  university  teachers,  men  with  skill  and  train- 
ing for  research,  while  it  would  at  the  same  time 
place  equal  stress  on  the  excellence  in  teaching  ability 
demanded  in  the  best  colleges.  It  would  raise  the  uni- 
versities of  America  to  the  educational  level  of  the 
universities  of  Germany.  *  *  *  No  institution 
has  yet  made  this  change,  but  it  is  an  inevitable  one, 
and  about  five  years  of  discussion  and  preparation  will 
bring  it  about.  Two  years  of  preparation  can  be  bet- 
ter given  in  a  well-ordered  college  than  in  an  over- 
swollen  university.  At  the  same  time  the  university 
can  do  better  work  in  the  junior  and  senior  years  than 
the  more  narrowly  equipped  colleges  can  do.  *  *  * 
Another  element  in  this  change  will  be  the  release  of 
the  university  from  drill-work  and  from  the  details  of 
boy-discipline.  *  *  *  The  remedy  is  the  revival  and 
rehabilitation  of  the  college,  and  the  reduction  in  popu- 
lation, with  intensification  of  work,  of  the  great  schools 
called  universities.  Of  these  there  are  about  thirty  in 
the  United  States  at  present. 


III.    THE  SECULARIZATION  OF 
EDUCATION 

The  speaker  had  been  president  of  the  University 
of    Minnesota    for    thirteen    years,    and    had    grovVn 
weary  of  hearing  the  institution  publicly  denounced 
as    "godless"    and    "infidel"    by   prominent    ecclesiastics 
adhering   to   the   traditional   belief   that   the   higher   ed- 
ucation  could   be   safely  conducted   only   under   church 
auspices.     He   had   become  convinced   that   an   attitude 
of  silence  too  long  maintained,  might  be  construed  into 
an  admission  that  the  state  universities  had  no  defense, 
and  resolved  upon  occasion,  to  attempt  a  statement  of 
the  grounds  upon  which  those  institutions  had  a  right 
to  exist.     An  opportunity  came  in  the  summer  of  1882. 
The  president  of  the  National  Educational  Association 
invited  him  to  make  one  of  the  principal  addresses  at 
the  annual  convention   of   that  year   at   Saratoga.   New 
York.      In   the  years  that   have  passed  the   state   uni- 
versities  have   grown   prosperous  and   powerful,   and 
the  Christian  religion  has  not  been  demolished,  nor 
has    society   become    less    orderly,   or    humane,    or    de- 
vout by  reason  of  their  existence.     The  paper,  there- 
fore,   may    have    some    interest    in    educational    his- 
tory. 

Tlie  development  of  a  sy.stem  of  pttblic  tini- 
versities  and  colleges  in  otir  cotintry  within  the 
jxist  half  century  is  a  phenomenon  surjiri-sing  to 
the  generation  under  wliose  eyes  it  has  taken 
place. 


144  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

Without  agitation,  without  pre-arrangement 
or  correspondence  it  has  appeared.  As  if  strewn 
there  by  an  unseen  hand,  a  whole  galaxy  of  these 
institutions  studs  our  educational  skv  from  hori- 
zon to  horizon. 

At  first  thought  it  would  seem  that  such  a  re- 
inforcement to  the  educational  power  of  the 
country  would  be  welcomed  by  all ;  but  the  fact 
is,  that  a  considerable  proportion  of  our  best 
citizens  look  with  doubt,  not  to  say  disfavor, 
upon  these  late  intruders  into  the  field  of  higher 
education. 

These  feelings  find  their  expression  chiefly 
through  the  pulpit  and  the  religious  press,  in  a 
manner  more  indicative  of  outworn  prejudice 
than  of  confidence  in  mending  matters  by  ser- 
mons and  editorials. 

Occasionally  the  discussions  are  diversified  and 
intensified  by  an  earnestness  naturally  spring- 
ing from  personal  or  official  interestedness ;  and 
under  exasperating  circumstances  honorable  and 
reverend  gentlemen  permit  themselves  to  speak  of 
state  universities  and  technical  colleges  as  "god- 
less" and  "infidel,"  denouncing  them  with  a  de- 
gree of  vigor  bordering  on  recklessness. 

Such  denunciations  cannot  be  meant  to  be  tak- 
en in  their  full  literal  and  awful  extent,  but  must 
be  charitably  regarded  as  extravagant  and  ill- 
considered  utterances  of  strong  convictions  under 
excitement. 


SECULARIZATION    OF    EDUCATION       145 

Let  us  endeavor  to  state  what  seems  to  be  the 
general  average  sentiment  of  that  respectable 
body  of  persons  who  are  not  yet  friendly  to  public 
interference  in  higher  education. 

"State  universities,"  they  say,  "existing  by  vir- 
tue of  public  law  cannot  be  allowed  to  teach  and 
propagate  religion ;  they  cannot  be  permitted  to 
compel  their  students  to  engage  in  religious  ex- 
ercises against  their  wills  ;  they  may  not  exhort 
their  students  to  any  distinctively  Christian  acts 
or  ritual,  such  as  conversion,  baptism,  the  Eu- 
charist; they  cannot  enjoin  any  rules  of  conduct 
simply  and  solely  because  contained  in  the  Bible 
of  Christians.  State  universities  therefore  are 
non-Christian  institutions." 

Ce  it  granted,  still  between  non-Christian  or 
un-Christian  in  this  mild  and  quasi-technical 
sense,  and  anti-Christian, — openly  or  clandestine- 
ly anti-Christian, — infidel,  godless,  diabolical, — is 
the  breadth  of  the  whole  sky.  Justice  to  honest 
argument  requires,  however,  that  it  be  said,  that 
these  terms  have,  by  an  ingenious  species  of 
rhetorical  thimblerigging  been  so  confused  and 
interfused  as  to  appear  synonymous.  By  such 
means  some  of  the  elect  have  been  deceived ;  but 
no  cause,  however  worthy,  can  long  depend  on  ar- 
gumentation essentially  dishonest,  however  well 
meant. 

"Xon  tali  auxilio,  nee  defensoribus  istis." 

I    hasten    from    this    painful    consideration    to 


146  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

acknowledge  the  profound  respect  due  to  that 
large  body  of  persons  who  honestly  believe  and 
teach  that  the  college  must  be  distinctively  and 
aggressively  Christian,  regarding  it  as  a  part  of 
the  machinery  of  evangelization,  an  organ  of  the 
denominational  propaganda.  Their  sentiments, 
their  prejudices  even,  are  entitled  to  sincere  re- 
spect, when  one  remembers  how  constantly  their 
works  have  confirmed  their  faith.  The  colleges 
are  the  monuments  of  their  devotion,  their  sacri- 
fices, and  their  loyalty.  It  were  folly  to  abate  one 
jot  of  the  just  meed  of  praise  due  to  the  denom- 
inational Christian  colleges  of  America  and  their 
supporters.  For  more  than  two  hundred  years 
they  held  undisturbed  and  undisputed  possession 
of  the  field  of  the  higher  education  in  this  coun- 
try. It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  nor  complained 
of  that  their  champions  so  promptly  challenge 
these  late  intruders,  the  state  universities,  and 
the  national  schools  of  science.  It  is  to  be  ad- 
mitted that  all  innovators,  all  disturbers  of  pre- 
scriptive trusts  and  easements  must  make  good 
their  intrusions.  It  may  not  be  too  late  to  call 
for  the  question,  'Ts  there  any  need  of  these 
public  institutions,  and  have  they  been  organized 
on  correct  principles?" 

Let  us  face  this  question  with  composure  and 
resolution,  ready  for  whatever  results  a  fair  and 
candid  inquiry  may  yield.  If  there  ever  was  a 
time  when  it  could  be  brushed  away  with  an  epi- 


SECULARIZATION    OF    EDUCATION       147 

g-rain  or  a  question-begging  epithet,  no  candid 
person  will  attempt  that  now.  The  American 
people  have  a  common  and  national  interest  in 
the  solution  of  this  problem.  If  these  higher 
public  schools  are  so  mischievous  and  pestilent  as 
many  good  men  have  denounced'  them  to  be,  they 
ought,  I  readily  consent,  to  be  swept  from  the 
face  of  the  earth. 

If  they  shall  in  any  degree  be  the  means  of  cor- 
rupting morals,  undermining  character,  weaken- 
mg  true  religion  and  piety,  the  American  people 
ought  to  utterly  abolish  them,  no  matter  how- 
great  their  contributions  to  science  and  the  useful 
arts  may  apparently  be.  If  we  must  choose,  give 
us  ignorance  rather  than  immorality  to  the  end 
of  time.  The  question  in  its  simplest  form  is , 
Have  the  state  universities  any  right  to  exist? 
If  this  be  settled  in  the  negative,  there  need  be 
no  further  inquiry  as  to  their  character  and  man- 
agement. The  old  law  maxim,  "Alalus  usus  abo- 
lendus  est,"  is  here  in  point.  A  bad  institution 
like  a  bad  custom  is  simply  to  be  abolished,  not 
modified. 

The  first  glance  at  the  field  of  discussion  shows 
ui  that  the  state  university  matter  is  but  a  small 
corner  of  it.  If  they  are  non-Christian  or  anti- 
Christian,  so  are  all  our  high  schools  and  normal 
schools,  and  the  greater  number  of  our  profes- 
sional and  technical  schools;  and  if  this  catalogue 
alarm  us,  may  we  not  stand  appalled  at  the  spec- 


148  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

tacle  of  our  common  schools,  with  their  ten  mil- 
lions of  children  who  may  never  learn  in  those 
schools  the  Apostles'  creed  or  Ave  Maria,  nor 
be  converted  and  baptized  through  their  agency? 

Several  millions  of  our  fellow  citizens  look 
upon  these  godless  public  schools  with  abhor- 
rence and  while  paying  taxes  for  their  support, 
give  thanks  that  their  children  are  not  forced  to 
attend  them.  Here  I  submit  is  the  proper  front 
of  attack,  ^^'hy  vex  our  souls  about  a  score  or 
so  of  state  universities  and  colleges,  if  our  great 
common  school  system  is  in  the  hands  of  the  in- 
fidels ? 

The  question  broadens.  We  have  to  account 
not  simply  for  an  isolated  and  trifling  phe- 
nomenon, but  for  a  great,  a  prodigious  historic 
fact.  Our  conclusion  will  depend  upon  the  judg- 
ment we  may  form  of  this  fact.  If  it  be  of  God, 
who  can  withstand  it ;  if  of  Satan,  let  us  make 
ready  for  battle. 

To  form  a  correct  opinion  of  any  great  historic 
fact,  there  is  in  our  day  but  one  means.  No  ipse 
dixit  of  pope  or  philosopher  or  pamphleteer  will 
affect  the  minds  of  any  who  are  not  already  per- 
suaded. It  is  necessary  to  attack  the  problem 
genetically,  to  ascertain  its  origin  and  trace  its 
development  or  evolution.  In  this  way  we  study 
the  jury-system,  slavery,  ethnology,  and  even 
psychology.  It  were  presumption  in  our  day  to 
attempt  here  any  other  than  the  "historic  method." 


SECULARIZATIOX  OF  EDUCATIOX         149 

What  then  was  the  source. — what  the  causes  con- 
tributory,— what  the  development  of  the  great 
fact  that  the  American  schools  are — I  will  not 
say  '"godless" — but  rather,  state  schools  than 
Church  schools,  rather  secular  than  ecclesiastical  ? 

It  is  necessary  to  remind  ourselves  that  this 
is  the  nineteenth  and  not  the  tenth  century,  and 
that  between  these  two  ages  a  great  change  has 
come  over  the  civilized  world — a  change  apparent 
in  all  departments  of  life  and  action,  most  con- 
spicuous, perhaps,  in  religion  and  politics.  The 
Reformation  did  not  simply  curtail  the  suprem- 
acy of  an  Italian  episcopate ;  it  established  for- 
ever the  fact  of  private  judgment  in  things  spir- 
itual. This  will  be  admitted  by  all  who  will  be 
affected  by  the  present  discussion.  Others  will 
not  deny  the  fact  of  private  judgment  whatever 
may  be  their  opinions  as  to  the  right  of  private 
judgment.  The  revolution  in  politics  has  been 
as  complete,  and  has  constantly  advanced  with 
equal  steps  beside  that  in  religion.  Let  us  as 
briefly  as  possible  explore  the  track  of  this  joint 
advance  and  revolution. 

During  those  two  centuries  of  blood  and  ruin 
— the  eleventh  and  the  twelfth  centuries — the 
Church  was  omnipotent  in  Europe,  religion  was 
the  absorbing  interest  of  men.  theology  the  only 
science.  Europe  for  two  hundred  years  was  as 
one  vast  camp,  whence  swarmed  in  successive  de- 
tachments the  whole  fighting  force  of  Christen- 


ISO  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

dom  to  the  recovery  of  the  Holy  City.  Kings 
and  emperors  were  so  many  papal  lieutenants. 
The  offices  of  state  were  filled  by  ecclesiastics, 
who  controlled  both  the  inland  administration 
and  the  foreign  policy  of  nations  according  to  in- 
struction issuing  from  Rome.  Politics  and  re- 
ligion were  one  in  actual  organization  and  em- 
bodiment. 

Now  it  was  for  the  Crusades,  as  is  well  known, 
to  set  in  motion  a  train  of  causes,  which,  operat- 
ing with  slow  but  certain  force,  have  in  the 
course  of  six  hundred  years  separated  politics  and 
religion  as  wide  as  the  poles. 

The  Crusades  were  eye-openers  to  the  lay 
nobles  and  yeomen  of  Europe,  who,  returning 
from  the  East,  brought  home  the  experience  and 
accumulations  of  campaigning  through  many 
countries,  some  knowledge  of  old  and  forgotten 
literatures,  many  products,  fabrics  and  arts,  and 
a  profound  respect  for  the  skill,  the  refinement 
and  the  nobleness  of  the  infidel  Saracens.  The 
blades  of  Damascus,  the  goldsmithing  of  Antioch 
were  not  more  wonderful  in  their  eyes,  than  the 
learning,  the  taste  and  the  gentleness  of  Moham- 
medans. 

The  Lombard  cities  which  in  the  later  cam- 
paigns supplied  the  transportation  and  commis- 
sariat of  the  French,  German  and  English  cru- 
saders, acquired  that  taste  and  enthusiasm  for 
commerce,   and  that   skill   in   seamanship   which 


SECULARIZATION    OF    EDUCATION       151 

awaited  only  the  invention  of  the  mariners'  com- 
pass to  engirdle  the  globe  with  their  adventur- 
ous keels.  It  was  a  Genoese  sailor  who  first  set 
foot  on  this  new  continent. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  the  Mohammedans, 
pushing  a  counter-irruption  into  Europe,  captured 
Constantinople.  In  that  historic  capital  had  been 
preserved  through  all  the  dark  ages  the  philoso- 
phies of  Plato  and  of  Aristotle,  the  histories,  the 
poetry  and  the  oratory  of  the  Romans  and 
Greeks.  These  precious  books  were  now  carried 
by  the  fugitive  Greeks  into  their  exile,  to  ser\'e 
as  good  seed  falling  upon  good  ground,  in  France, 
in  Italy  and  all  the  West.  The  story  of  the  re- 
vival of  learning  need  not  be  told  again.  Aris- 
ing thus  remotely  from  the  Crusades  it  wrought 
together  with  other  causes  the  great  reformation 
of  the  sixteenth  century. 

It  is  more  than  probable  that  those  great  in- 
ventions of  the  fifteenth  century,  gunpowder,  rag- 
paper,  and  printing,  and  the  mariners'  compass 
found  their  origin  in  suggestions  acquired  in 
those  numerous  and  extended  journeys  of  trade 
and  exploration  to  the  far  East — to  India  and 
Cathay,  which  followed,  and  were  made  possible 
by  the  Crusades. 

There  is  a  class  of  philosophers  who  find  in 
such  inventions  the  actual  and  efficient  causes  of 
civilization,  subordinating  to  them  all  other  agen- 


152  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

cies  and  influences,  whether  of  commerce,  in- 
dustry, art,  philosophy  or  reHgion.  Such  an  er- 
ror may  receive  charitable  regard  when  one  re- 
flects upon  their  undeniable  effects. 

Gunpowder  destroyed  feudalism  and  quenched 
out  chivalry,  by  making  the  infantry  soldier, 
armed  with  a  slight  chemical  tube,  more  than  a 
match  for  the  mailed  and  mounted  knight.  It 
made  standing  armies  possible.  Standing  armies 
put  it  in  the  hands  of  monarchs,  to  collect  regu- 
lar revenues,  to  suppress  revolting  nobles,  abol- 
ish private  war  and  establish  public  justice.  The 
mariners"  compass  carried  the  merchants  and  their 
wares  to  all  quarters  of  the  earth,  and  transfer- 
red the  decisive  dueling  nations  from  land  to  the 
ocean. 

But  the  invention  of  letters,  coming  also  ages 
before  from  the  shadowy  East.  I  take  to  be  the 
crowning  achievement  of  human  intelligence  and 
ingenuitv.  I  care  not  how  many  engines  for 
moving  matter,  how  many  devices  for  directing 
force  may  in  the  course  of  time  be  contrived ;  far 
above  them  all.  in  point  of  difficulty,  of  world- 
historic  importance,  will  tower  the  work  of  Cad- 
mus, the  Phoenician,  who  gave  mankind  the  pho- 
netic alphabet.  Faust  and  Gutenberg  but 
crowned  the  work  of  him  we  call  Cadmus,  by 
spreading  before  men  the  printed  page.  With 
the  printing  press,  "the  people"  were  born. 
Thenceforth    slavery   of   all    sorts    was   doomed. 


SECULARIZATION    OF    EDUCATION       153 

To  men  with  open  Bibles  in  llieir  hands  there 
was  a  tremendous  meaning  in  that  scripture, 
"Ye  shall  know  the  truth  and  the  truth  shall  make 
you  free."  And  within  a  single  generation  the 
Reformation  burst  upon  Europe  like  ten  thous- 
and meteors.  In  that  far-spreading,  far-pene- 
trating light  the  darkness  of  ages,  the  thraldom 
of  centuries,  were  lifted,  never  we  trust  to  fall 
upon  mankind  again. 

The  Reformation,  what  was  it,  in  its  essence? 
There  are  conflicting  opinions,  but  none  will  ven- 
ture to  deny  that,  however  insignificant  the  sparks 
which  kindled  it.  the  Reformation  became  a  great, 
an  all-embracing  insurrection  of  Europe  against 
ecclesiastical  power.  Good  or  bad  in  its  origin  and 
results,  no  one — not  even  the  ultramontanes — 
will  deny  that  the  Reformation  was  an  insurrec- 
tion. It  is  on  this  very  ground  that  they  con- 
demn it.  The  right  of  private  judgment  in  things 
spiritual  has  ever  since  been  asserted ;  and  right 
or  no  right,  it  is  the  fact  that  millions  of  men 
exercise  the  privilege  of  private  judgment  and 
interpretation  in  religion  since  that  time ;  a  thing, 
before  that  age.  to  be  spoken  of  in  darkness  and 
with  bated  breath. 

Xo  great  revolution  is  fully  comprehended 
by  the  men  of  the  time.  ■  The  Reformation  was 
not.  Religious  liberty  was  deemed  rather  a 
choice  of  contending  masters,  than  an  emancipa- 
tion from  all  masters. 


154  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

The  effect  on  civil  affairs  was  apparently  slight. 
It  left  politics  about  where  it  found  them.  The 
consolidation  of  fiefs,  principalities  and  king- 
doms, brought  about  by  the  bankruptcy  of  Cru- 
sading chieftans ;  the  alliances  of  nionarchs  with 
the  money-lending  cities  and  boroughs  had,  by 
the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  crystallized 
Europe  into  a  loose  aggregation  of  great  mon- 
archies. The  successors  of  Gregory  VII  having 
failed  in  their  efforts  protracted  through  cen- 
turies, to  reduce  the  sovereigns  to  a  condition  of 
vassalage,  undertook  the  more  feasible  plan  of 
ruling  the  kingdoms  by  finesse.  The  papal 
nuncios  and  legates  became  the  power  behind 
the  thrones.  They  conducted  the  diplomacy  of 
Europe.  They  kept  not  only  the  consciences  of 
kings,  but  the  keys  of  their  treasure.  Ecclesi- 
astics filled  the  council  chambers,  and  held  the 
great  offices  of  state  for  generations.  Courts 
spiritual  absorbed  a  large  proportion  of  legal 
jurisdiction,  and  bishops  and  cardinals  rode  at 
the  head  of  battalions  in  many  a  battle  and  foray. 

This  alliance  of  church  and  state  was  an  im- 
mense obstacle  to  the  advance  of  civil  liberty.  It 
served  all  the  ends  of  a  conspiracy  of  the  powers 
temporal  and  spiritual  against  the  rights  of  man. 
The  Divine  right  of  kings,  and  its  corollary,  the 
duty  of  non-resistance  to  tyrants  even,  were 
everywhere  proclaimed  and  inculcated.  So 
passed  the   ages   till   Richelieu,   who,   priest  and 


SECULARIZATION    OF    EDUCATION       155 

cardinal  that  he  was,  transacted  for  France  and 
his  nominal  master  precisely  as  a  lay  minister  of 
modern  times  would  do.  States,  he  proclaimed, 
must  be  ruled  by  statesmen.  The  change  thus 
heralded  we  do  not  need  to  trace.  It  is  the  story 
of  the  rise  and  progress  of  civil  liberty  and  that 
constitutes  modern  history. 

In  this  hurried  sketch  I  have  purposely  sup- 
pressed the  observation  I  now  desire  to  bring 
forward  in  the  hope  that  it  may  be  more  im- 
pressive. 

At,  the  time  of  the  Crusades  all  art,  litera- 
ture, philosophy,  government — were  ecclesiastical. 
There  was  no  distinct  secular  power. 

At  this  day  all  power  is,  or  is  becoming  secu- 
lar. That  government  which  we  delight  to  call 
the  "best  government  on  earth"  is  wholly  and 
forever  secular.  The  history  of  the  civilized 
\\orld  from  the  twelfth  century  is  the  story  of 
the  decline  of  ecclesiastical  control  and  authority, 
and  the  steady  growth  of  lay  learning,  influence 
and  power.  Within  the  past  century  has  been 
developed  a  new  science  of  political  econom}^, 
utterly  inconceivable  in  its  nature  and  scope,  to 
the  mediaeval  citizen.  Statesmanship  has  be- 
come a  profession.  "Liberty,  not  theology,  is  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  nineteenth  century." 

In  the  time  of  Henry  III  of*  England,  one- 
half  of  the  House  of  Lords  were  spiritual  peers. 
They  are   now  but  one-fourteenth.     Xo  clergy- 


iS6  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

man  has  held  an  important  civil  office  in  Eng- 
land since  the  beginning  of  the  last  century  (i8o 
years).  The  fact  is  similar  in  our  own  country 
and  in  some  degree  in  others.  To  this  great  and 
universal  revolution  from  a  state  of  things  in 
which  ecclesiasticism  was  supreme  in  government 
and  society,  to  another  in  which  it  has  utterly 
disappeared  from  public  affairs  a  profound  mod- 
ern thinker  has  given  the  happy  designation  of 
tl:e  "secularization  of  politics." 

At  this  point  I  ask  only  that  this  .great 
fact  be  agreed  to.  The  syllabus  of  Pio  Nono  in 
the  act  of  condemning  the  fact  concedes  it. 

It  is  now  my  desire  to  show  that  this  great 
movement  in  politics  has  been  accompanied  by 
another,  only  second,  if  second,  in  importance — 
the  steady,  persistent  cumulative  secularization 
of  education.  To  this  end  I  ask  that  you  note 
the  succession  and  import  of  the  events  in  the 
history  of  education  which  must  now  pass  in  re- 
view. 

The  public  schools  established  in  every  city  and 
town  by  the  later  emperors  of  Rome  did  not  long 
survive  the  destruction  of  the  empire.  Then  for 
many  generations.  Western  Europe,  raided  over 
by  successive  hordes  of  barbarians,  remained 
without  order  or  institutions,  a  wild  chaos  of 
contending  social  and  political  forces.  Learn- 
ing was  quenched  out.  schools  abolished,  litera- 
ture and  philosophy  obliterated.     Only  religion, 


SECULARIZATIOX    OF    EDUCATION       157 

niainicd  aiul  disturled,  survived,  and  it  is  lo  the 
survival  of  Christianity  as  an  organized  institu- 
tion the  world  owes  the  recovery  of  Europe  to 
civihzation.  i'iety  was  driven  by  the  rough  be- 
havior of  barbarian  chieftans  to  the  secure  and 
mysterious  shelter  of  the  cloister.  Monasticisni 
became  epidemic  in  the  sixth  and  seventh  cen- 
turies. In  the  monasteries  were  treasured  and 
multiplied  precious  copies  of  the  \'ulgate,  and 
there  survived  traditions  at  least  of  the  Roman 
authors.  We  shall  never  know  how  many  noble 
attempts  were  made  by  bishops  and  abbots,  by 
priests  and  monks  to  spread  their  little  knowl- 
edge through  the  society  to  which  they  belonged. 
Not  much  was  accomplished  in  instruction  till 
the  time  of  Charlemagne,  one  of  those  great  spir- 
its who  are  not  willing  to  endure  ignorance,  dis- 
order and  misery. 

Among  the  reforms  introduced  by  this 
great  monarch  in  the  ninth  century,  was  the 
establishment  of  schools,  in  connection  with  re- 
ligious houses  and  establishments  naturally  under 
the  control  of  the  clergy,  the  only  class  of  persons 
in  any  way  capable  of  conducting  schools.  From 
Charlemagne  till  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh 
century  there  were,  as  Mosheim  informs  us,  "no 
schools  in  Europe  but  those  which  belonged  to 
monasteries  and  episcopal  residences."  and  it  ap- 
pears that  the  Benedictine  monks  had  obtained 
the  monopolv  of  the  masterships  of  those  schools. 


158  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

Those  schools,  it  must  be  remembered,  were 
not  for  the  people,  nor  yet  for  the  professional 
classes  as  we  know  them.  They  were  essentially 
theological  schools,  for  the  instruction  of  the 
clergy  alone.  It  should  be  remembered  also  that 
in  that  age,  the  clergy  still  formed  the  only 
learned  profession.  They  were  not  only  min- 
isters of  religion,  but  ministers  of  State  also. 
They  were  the  lawyers  and  physicians  of  the 
time.  The  differentiation  of  the  professions  had 
hardly  begun  in  the  tenth  century.  It  did  how- 
ever at  length  begin ;  but  it  has  not  yet  been  com- 
pleted. The  separation  of  the  lawyer  from  the 
priest,  and  the  physician  from  the  monk  has 
everywhere  taken  place.  The  profession  of 
teaching  has  yet  to  be  fully  and  finally  divaricat- 
ed from  the  clerical  function. 

The  progress  in  this  divarication  since  this  was 
written  has  been  revolutionary.  The  college  profes- 
sor is  rarely  "in  orders,"  and  few  employing  boards 
concern   themselves   about  his   church   affiliations. 

While  it  is  eminently  and  forever  true  that  it 
was  Christianity,  which  saved  Europe  from  per- 
pettial  barbarism,  it  is  only  justice  to  admit  that 
to  the  Jew  and  the  Arab  we  owe  it  that  the  Chris- 
tian civilization,  (for  so  we  may  term  it),  of  the 
ninth  century  did  not  perish  of  dry  rot.  Let  it 
be  granted  that  Draper  and  Lecky  and  Buckle 
overestimate     and     overemphasize     the     Semitic 


SECULARIZATION    OF    EDUCATION       159 

contributions,  still  there  is  no  denying  that  to  the 
Hebrews  we  owe  the  survival  of  medical  science 
and  to  the  Saracens  of  Spain  and  Sicily  that  of 
mathematics,  astronomy  and  philosophy. 

Before  the  close  of  the  tenth  century  the  fame 
oi  the  great  Arabian  schools  of  Seville,  Granada, 
and  Cordova  had  spread  throughout  Christian 
Europe,  and  students  in  considerable  numbers  be- 
gan to  flock  into  Spain  to  hear  the  Arabic  doc- 
tors. Conspicuous  among  these  was  that  "great 
and  exalted  genius,"  Gerbert.  who  afterwards  be- 
came Pope  Sylvester  II.  It  is  interesting  here 
to  compare  with  this  movement,  the  analogous  one 
which  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  has 
carried  so  many  young  American  scholars  to  the 
universities  and  technical  schools  of  German}'. 
In  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries  the  young 
men  of  Europe  journeyed  likewise  into  Spain 
for  post-graduate  study. 

It  is  of  record  that  some  of  these  returning  to 
their  homes  in  France  and  Italy,  set  up  schools 
for  the  instruction  of  youth  in  the  studies  of  the 
then  "new  education."  Geometry,  medicine  and 
astronomy  constituted  that  "new  education,"  and 
were  denounced  by  the  ultra  orthodox  as  the  in- 
ventions of  the  devil.  They  held  their  way  for 
all  that  and  we  shall  hear  again  of  these  schools 
in  which  they  were  taught. 

Passing  forward  into  the  twelfth  century  we 
find  the  free  citv  movement  in  the  ascendant,     hi 


i6o  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

this  age  the  cities  of  Western  Europe  became 
free,  rich  and  ambitious  of  splendor  and  influence. 
It  was  the  age  of  the  great  "free  city"  move- 
ment. It  was  the  time  when  the  artisans,  talcing 
a  lesson  in  co-operation  from  the  monastic  sys- 
tem of  the  Catholic  church,  organized  the  prim- 
itive trades-unions,  the  guilds  and  crafts,  which 
spreading  like  a  vast  net  work  over  Western  Eu- 
rope exercised  for  generations  on  labor  a  self- 
imposed  slavery. 

In  such  an  era  of  co-operation  we  may  not 
wonder  to  find  a  learned  historian  asserting  that, 
"Associations  of  learned  men  were  formed  in 
many  places,  for  teaching  the  various  branches 
of  knowledge ;  and  as  the  youth  resorted  to  them 
in  great  numbers  eager  for  instruction,  those 
higher  schools,  which  the  next  age  called  uni- 
versities, were  gradually  established."' 

It  is  a  most  curious  and  interesting  circum- 
stance that  the  universities  borrowed  from  the 
trades-unions,  their  very  name  and  many  cus- 
toms. 

"When  those  particular  incorporations  which 
are  now  peculiarly  called  universities  were  first 
established,  the  term  of  years  which  it  was  neces- 
sary to  study,  in  order  to  obtain  the  degree  of 
master  of  arts,  appears  evidently  to  have  been 
copied  from  the  term  of  apprenticeship  in  the 
common  trades,  of  which  the  incorporations  were 
much  more  ancient.     As  to  have  wrought  seven 


SECULARIZATIOX    OF    EDUCATION       lOi 

years  under  a  master  properly  (pialifiecl,  was 
necessary,  in  order  to  entitle  an}-  person  to  be- 
come a  master  and  to  have  himself  apprentices 
in  a  common  trade;  so  to  have  studied  seven 
years  under  a  master  properly  (pialified.  was 
necessary  to  entitle  him  to  become  a  master, 
teacher,  or  doctor  (words  anciently  synonomousj 
in  the  liberal  arts,  and  to  have  scholars  or  ap- 
prentices (words  likewise  ori,qinally  synono- 
mous)  to  study  under  him."  It  was  a  most 
natural  thing  that  teachers  and  scholars  observing 
all  other  classes  of  society  formed  into  unions  or 
guilds,  should  follow  the  fashion,  and  give  at 
length  to  their  associations  the  then  common  name 
of  University."*  There  were  then  universities 
of  smiths,  of  tailors,  of  weavers,  etc.,  before  there 
were  universities,  i.  e.,  incorporations  of  teach- 
ers and  scholars,  but  there  is  no  record  of  the  use 
of  the  word  "university"  as  now  applied,  till  we 
reach  the  thirteenth  century. 

Xow  the  university  of  the  Crusade  era  was 
the  very  germ  from  which  have  grown  all  mod- 
ern schools  and  educational  systems.  Tliat  germi- 
nal establishment  we  have  discovered  to  be  an 
incident  of  the  great  free  citv  movement  and  in  a 
great  degree  secular  and  not  ecclesiastical  in  or- 
ganization. 

It  is  a  mistaken  and  superficial  view  which 
displays  the  universities  as  being  merely  devel- 
opments of  the  cathedral  and  monastic   schools. 


*Adani    Sniitli.    Wealth    of   Xation.';.    1:1S5. 


l62  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

coming  down  from  Charlemagne.  It  is  rather 
the  fact  that  the  new  city  schools  smothered  out 
the  cathedral  and  monastic  schools,  in  spite  of  the 
vigorous  efforts  of  Alexander  III  and  other  popes 
to  rescue  them  from  extinction.  There  were, 
however,  without  doubt  instances,  where  as  in 
Paris,  the  new  city  school  became  attached  to  or 
associated  with  the  cathedral  school,  but  soon  to 
absorb  and  obliterate  it.  The  testimony  of  Hase 
is  clear.  "They" — the  universities — "owe  their 
establishment  not  to  the  favor  of  popes  or  of 
princes,  but  to  the  necessities  of  the  times,  as 
thousands  of  students  were  drawn  together  by 
the  reputation  of  some  distinguished  teacher. 
Acts  of  incorporations  were  not  sought  for  from 
the  Pope  until  a  later  period,  when  the  younger 
universities  endeavored  by  such  means  to  rival 
those  which  depended  upon  their  own  reputa- 
tion."' * 

Captured  at  length  and  harnessed  into  the  serv- 
ice of  ecclesiasticism,  at  times  appearing  to  be 
the  very  citadel  and  strongholds  of  intolerance, 
still  the  universities  have  never  been  untrue  to 
their  origin.  If  there  was  intellctual  movement 
anywhere,  it  was  within  their  halls.  When  Peter 
the  Hermit  and  Godfrey  of  Bouillon  and  St. 
Louis,  were  leading  their  hosts  of  infatuated 
devotees  to  death  on  the  plains  of  Syria,  Abelard 
and  his  disciples  were  proclaiming  in  the  Sor- 


*History  of  the  Church.   N.   Y.   Appleton.    p.   230. 


SECULARIZATION    OF    EDUCATION       163 

bonne  the  then  intolerable  heresy  that  a  man, — 
at  least  a  philosopher, — might  seek  for  a  reason 
for  the  faith  that  is  in  him.  From  that  time 
until  now  the  universities  have  been  the  nurseries 
of  free  thought,  science,  philosophy,  art,  free- 
dom. In  every  democratic  uprising  their  stu- 
dents have  been  first  in  the  bloody  arena.  In  our 
own  day  absolutism  in  Russia  aims  its  first  blows 
at  the  universities,  because  there  resides  its  most 
dangerous,  because  most  irreconcilable  foe. 

Secular  in  their  origin  and  motive  the  univer- 
sities of  continental  Europe  have  at  length  gen- 
erally escaped  from  ecclesiastical  leading  strings 
and  reassumed  their  secular  character.  They  arc 
teaching  places  of  science,  in  the  full  sense  of  that 
word,  their  professors  are  teachers,  and  not  teach- 
ing-priests. Just  in  proportion  to  their  degree  of 
emancipation  have  they  grown  in  estimation  and 
usefulness. 

Turning  our  attention  to  the  schools  next  below 
tlic  universities  we  shall  obsers'e  a  similar  move- 
ment and  outcome. 

Luther,  to  his  immortal  honor,  no  sooner  saw 
the  triumph  of  his  cause,  the  emancipation  of  the 
German  people,  than  he  foresaw  the  means  neces- 
sary to  the  perpetuation  of  that  dear  bought  lib- 
erty. Luther,  who  was  no  mere  religious  zealot, 
foresaw  that  if  the  faith  was  to  be  committed  to 
the  people,  the  people  must  be  enlightened.  Of 
what  use  the  book  to  those  who  cannot  read? 


i64  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

The  education  of  the  people  was  a  natural  and 
inevitable  sequence  of  the  emancipation  of  mind 
efifected  by  the  Reformation.  He  therefore  pro- 
posed and  secured  the  establishment  of  numerous 
grammar  schools,  to  prepare  youth  for  admission 
to  the  universities. 

Aleantime  the  opposing  powers  were  not  idle, 
nor  ignorant  of  the  signs  of  those  times.  The 
Jesuits,  no  doubt,  understood  far  more  clearly 
than  the  reformers  themselves  the  full  meaning 
and  tendency  of  the  reform  movement.  They 
too  saw  the  importance  of  capturing  the  schools. 
The  society  of  Jesus  of  continental  vastness,  yet 
compact  as  a  single  battalion,  wielded  by  the  cen- 
tral power  of  a  single  will,  as  no  military  force 
was  ever  yet  controlled,  undertook  nothing  less 
than  to  monopolize  the  education  of  Europe  and 
the  civilized  world.  Nor  did  they  stop  at  that. 
Their  teachers  and  missionaries  spread  them- 
selves among  the  savages  of  both  Americas,  they 
penetrated  Africa  to  the  mountains  of  the  Moon, 
they  surmounted  the  everlasting  snows  of  the 
Himalayas  and  trod  the  streets  of  Pekin.  Wher- 
ever they  went  they  carried  the  "Ordo  Studio- 
rum"  of  the  founder,  Loyola,  a  book  which  is  to 
this  hour  the  hand  book  and  directory  of  the 
Jesuit  pedagogy. 

We  cannot  trace  the  events  and  incidents  of 
this  contest  for  the  mastery  of  society  through 
the  mastery  of  its  education.    The  efforts  of  both 


SECULARIZATION    OF    EDUCATION       165 

parties  were  greatly  neutralized ;  the  times  were 
not  favorable  to  their  operation.  The  Reforma- 
tion opening  with  the  sixteenth  century  was  not 
consummated  till  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  when  by  the  peace  of  Westphalia,  Cath- 
olic and  Protestant  Europe  agreed  to  stop  cutting 
throats  and  content  themselves  with  turning  up 
noses.  In  the  fierce  and  desperate  struggle  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  not  much  could  be 
done  for,  or  with  schools. 

Still  another  period  of  about  equal  duration,  a 
period  of  rest,  inquiry  and  preparation,  was  to 
pass,  before  the  glorious  appearing  of  a  new- 
epoch  in  education. 

In  this  time  the  globe  was  circumnavigated, 
and  the  Xew  World  occupied  by  Europeans.  The 
inductive  method  popularized,  but  not  invented 
by  Bacon,  had  started  science  on  an  infinity  of 
new  lines  of  research  and  advance.  The  phi- 
losophy of  Descartes  had  loosed  the  pinions  of 
speculative  thought  to  new  and  nobler  excursions. 

Chief  of  all  facts  a  new  science  was  born,  and 
it  was  given  to  the  world  in  the  immortal  work 
of  Adam  Smith,  in  the  same  year  in  which  our 
Declaration  of  Independence  was  signed  in  Phil- 
adelphia. 

The  new  science  of  political  economy  had  for 
h>  central  postulate,  that  the  causes  which  move 
society,  to  elevate  or  to  degrade,  to  enrich  or  to 
impoverish,  to  barbarize  or  to  civilize,  lie  in  the 


i66  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

nature  of  man,  as  modified  and  limited  by  his 
natural  surroundings.  Adam  Smith  lived  to  see, 
as  perhaps  no  other  great  thinker  has,  his  doc- 
trines, not  fully  understood,  but  appreciated  in 
some  degree,  and  the  policies  of  empires  shaped 
and  molded  on  new  principles.  More  than  ever, 
nation  building,  nation  culture,  became  the  am- 
bition alike  of  monarch,  nobles  and  subjects. 

All  Europe  was  stirred  and  leavened  with  the 
new  doctrine,  and  the  problem  of  statesmen  be- 
came, not  how  to  increase  and  fortify  the  priv- 
ileges of  the  aristocracy,  but  how  to  direct  and 
multiply  the  industrial,  commercial  and  intellec- 
tual powers  of  the  nation. 

Again  as  in  the  days  of  Gratian  and  Charle- 
magne, of  Luther  and  Loyola,  the  answer  came, 
"Take  hold  of  the  schools  and  through  them  train 
the  rising  generations,  and  your  work  will  work 
itself." 

It  chanced  that  Germany  was  the  readiest  soil 
to  receive  the  new  and  precious  seed.  As  the 
smoke  of  battle  rose  from  the  plain  of  Jena,  from 
which  the  French  invader  had  driven  in  hopeless 
defeat  the  last  reserves'  of  the  German  armies, 
Stein,  the  Prussian  statesman,  was  working  out  a 
plan,  under  which  Germany  was  to  rear  up  a  gen- 
eration which  should  not  only  maintain  its 
"Wacht  am  Rhein,"  but  should  take  bloody  ret- 
ribution beneath  the  towers  of  Notre  Dame. 

Then  was  organized   that  Prussian  system  of 


SECULARIZATIOX    OF    EDUCATION       167 

public  schools,  the  model  on  which  all  modern 
civilized  states  are  building'  up  their  education. 
Under  it  all  the  schools  of  all  degrees  are  organ- 
ized, into  a  complete  and  harmonious  system  un- 
der the  superv'ision  of  the  supreme  power  of  the 
state.  They  are  completely  secularized  in  their  or- 
ganization and  management  notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  religious  teachers  are  allowed  to  give 
instruction  at  fixed  hours  of  the  day  or  week. 
The  continental  nations  have  adopted  similar  sys- 
tems, and  even  conservative  England  has  entered 
upon  the  same  path  and  made  a  considerable  ad- 
vance. 

It  is  in  our  own  country,  however,  that  the 
separation  of  both  church  and  state,  and  church 
and  school  have  been  most  complete.  Since  the 
disestablishment  of  religion  in  the  New  England 
states,  the  common  schools  have  been  everywhere 
secular.  The  public  high  schools  are  so,  and  so 
are  the  normal  schools.  All  law  and  medical 
schools  are  virtually  secular,  for  wherever  they 
are  attached  to  denominational  corporations  they 
are  never,  or  very  rarely  at  least,  brought  under 
denominational  influences  or  supervision,  nor  are 
any  religious  opinions  or  exercises  taught  or  re- 
quired in  them.  The  national  schools  founded  in 
every  state  under  the  law  of  1862,  and  the  tech- 
nical schools  of  Troy,  Hoboken,  Worcester  and 
other  cities,  operate  independently  of  the  action 
of  councils,  svnods  or  conferences. 


i68  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

There  remain  under  ecclesiastic  control  besides 
the  theological  seminaries,  a  large  number  of 
colleges,  and  a  considerable  but  steadily  decreas- 
ing number  of  academies  in  the  older  states. 
Most  of  them  will  probably  within  a  generation 
be  merged  in  the  local  high  schools. 

Within  the  colleges  ecclesiasticism  has  lost 
much  ground.  A  few  years  ago  their  professors 
were  generally  clergymen ;  to-day  but  a  small  pro- 
portion of  the  teachers  are  in  orders.  Even  in 
the  most  rigidly  orthodox  denominational  institu- 
tions ,  the  professional  teacher,  the  trained  expert, 
who  has  learned  his  art  and  specialty  in  Paris  or 
Berlin,  in  Heidelberg  or  ]\Ianchester  is  driving 
the  cleric  from  the  laboratory  and  lecture  room. 
Our  denominational  colleges  are  generally  affil- 
iated with,  not  managed  by  conference,  synod  or 
council. 

The  highest  authority  on  the  subject,  Presi- 
dent Porter,  of  Yale,  has  plainly  shown  and 
enunciated  the  fact,  that  just  in  proportion  as 
American  colleges  have  become  great  and  popu- 
lous, have  they  become  the  less  denominational. 

We  now  come  back  to  the  proposition  from 
which  our  discussion  set  out.  Parallel  with  the 
secularization  of  politics  we  have  traced  the  secu- 
larization of  education.  Over  against  the  separa- 
tion of  church  and  state,  we  have  set  the  co- 
related  fact  of  the  separation  of  priest  and  peda- 
gogue. 


SECULARIZATIOX    OF    EDUCATION       169 

In  the  ninth  century  theology  (so  called)  was 
the  only  science ;  the  priest  and  monk  the  only 
teachers ;  in  the  nineteenth  century  theology  is 
one  of  a  multitude  of  sciences,  and  the  priest  is 
not  the  exclusive  teacher  of  that  even.  Phi- 
losophy has  passed  into  lay  hands,  and  the  lay 
schoolmaster  is  abroad  in  the  land.  Were  this 
not  the  fact  no  such  convention  as  this  were  pos- 
sible. 

Now  of  this  secularization  of  education,  which 
none  will  deny  to  be  a  fact,  I  desire  to  say  that  it 
has  not  been  the  work  of  any  gang  or  clique  of 
atheists,  infidels  or  agnostics.  No  schools  of 
materialists  in  philosophy,  or  of  anarchists  in  pol- 
itics have  wrought  it  out.  It  is  not  the  offspring 
of  a  corrupt  and  decaying  Christianity,  nor  any 
relapse  into  barbarism. 

It  is  rather  a  part,  an  essential  part  and  fac- 
tor in  the  purest,  fairest.  Christian  civilization  the 
world  has  known.  It  is  a  movement  co-equal 
and  co-temporaneous  with  the  march  of  liberty, 
the  extension  of  science,  the  efflorescence  of 
literature  and  art.  It  cannot  be  diabolic  in  its 
origin  or  progress.  It  is.  it  must  be  a- great  provi- 
dential fact, — a  moment  in  the  great  divine 
evolving  of  human  history. 

If  this  be  so.  if  education  is  passing  forever  out 
of  the  control  of  the  church  into  that  of  the  state, 
out  of  the  hands  of  priests  into  those  of  profes- 
sors. I  put  to  those  who  are  declaiming  against 


170  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

the  movement,  denouncing  it  as  godless,  infidel, 
tliabolic, — I  put  to  them  that  most  cogent,  though 
perhaps  inelegant  question,  "What  are  you  going 
to  do  about  it?"  Will  you  stem  the  rising  Atlan- 
tic with  your  brooms,  or  embarking  on  the 
mighty  wave  of  progress,  be  borne  onwards  with 
the  advance  of  true  Christian  civilization? 

Here  the  present  discussion  might  close.  Hav- 
ing traced  the  rise  and  progress  of  a  great  provi- 
dential historic  movement  and  development  of 
secularization  in  politics,  science  and  education 
we  might  rest,  leaving  on  the  shoulders  of  dis- 
sentients the  onus  of  proving  this  progress  a  mis- 
direction, this  development  an  aborted  process. 

Let  those,  we  might  say,  who  now  deny_  the 
right  and  the  duty  of  the  people  to  educate,  let 
them  show  cause  why  after  abandoning  the  whole 
field  of  the  primary  education,  the  larger  part  of 
the  secondary  and  a  wide  scope  of  the  superior 
education,  they  ought  to  be  left  in  undisputed 
possession  of  the  scanty  remnant.  When  they 
gave  over  to  the  people  the  common  schools,  they 
gave  up  the  only  principle  on  which  they  might 
now  stand  with  consistency  if  not  with  success. 

The  bishop  of  Rome  and  his  consistories  have 
not  committed  this  dialetic  suicide.  Modern  civ- 
ilization, say  they,  is  a  retrogression  from  so  call- 
ed liberty,  and  an  enslavement ;  free  government  is 
a  delusion.  The  church  through  her  infallible  head 
delivers  the  rule  of  faith  and  the  maxims  of  con- 


SECULARIZATION    OF   EDUCATION       171 

duct  for  men  and  communities.  The  priesthood 
are  the  divinely  commissioned  teachers  of  the 
race  and  shepherds  of  peoples.  Accordins^ly  all 
public  and  secular  schools  are  anathema  in  a 
lump.  Here  is  consistency  and  good  logic.  Grant 
the  premises,  and  the  conclusion  is  inevitable.  But 
it  will  be  impossible  to  convince  any  modern  na- 
tion, that  the  state  may  conduct  the  education 
of  the  people  in  the  common  schools  and  high 
schools,  but  that  to  the  church  or  churches  must 
be  reserved  the  training  of  the  leaders.  The 
power  which  educates  the  people  will  educate  the 
educators. 

Refusing  then  to  agree  with  the  ultramontane 
doctrine  that  modern  civilization  is  diabolic,  free 
government  a  snare,  and  public  schools  a  satanic 
invention,  let  us  now  inquire  whether  there  may 
not  be  in  public  education  some  elements  which  in 
their  nature  and  relations  justify  the  fact  of  its 
existence. 

First  of  all.  it  needs  to  be  observed  that  the 
task  of  the  educators  in  our  times  is  far  other 
from  that  which  exercised  the  ingenuity  of  Al- 
cuin  and  John  Scotus  in  the  ninth  century,  or  of 
Abelard  and  Anselm  in  the  twelfth.  Then  it  was 
a  few  ecclesiastics  who  were  to  be  trained  and 
furnished.  To-day  the  millions  of  the  people  are 
demanding  to  be  schooled.  The  self-education 
of  whole  nations  is  to  the  thoughtful  student  of 
sociolog>'  the  most  interesting  and  the  most  mag- 


172  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

nificent  spectacle  of  modern  times.  Nowhere 
has  this  idea  penetrated,  but  it  has  carried  with 
it  the  other  and  inseparable  idea,  that  only  the 
people  can  educate  the  people.  No  sect,  no 
church,  nor  all  the  sects  and  all  the  churches  com- 
bined are  equal  to  that  gigantic  labor.  No  power, 
save  the  supreme  power  of  the  people,  operating 
through  their  appropriate  agency,  the  state,  can 
collect,  co-ordinate  and  conduct  the  immense 
forces  and  revenues  necessary  to  that  work.  Re- 
garded as  a  mere  business,  as  an  industry,  no 
private  nor  corporate  agencies  can  handle  it. 
Supremely  amusing  then  are  the  pretensions  of  the 
"True  Church,"  whether  called  Sandemanian, 
Second  Adventist,  Hicksite  or  Dunkard,  to  be 
the  teachers  of  the  people.  The  education  of  the 
people  must  be  public  or  not  at  all.  To  entrust 
the  education  of  the  people  to  the  churches, 
would  be  no  more  absurd  than  to  confide  the  de- 
fense of  the  frontiers  to  the  journeymen  tailors. 
War  is  the  business  of  the  nation :  so  is  educa- 
tion.    Public  education  is  universal  in  its  aim. 

But  what  are  the  advantages  of  public  schools? 

First,  economy.  The  private  and  denomina- 
tional academies  of  New  York  and  New  Eng- 
land, are  rapidly  giving  place  to  public  high 
schools.  Why?  Because  the  large  schools  can 
be  closely  graded,  and  the  teachers  distributed 
according  to  their  special  gifts.  The  small 
school  must  lump  its  work  and  keep  its  teachers 


SECULARIZATION    OF    EDUCATION       173 

jacks  of  all  trades  and  masters  of  none.  This 
same  principle  will  sooner  than  most  of  us  will 
now  believe  reduce  the  numbers  and  proportions 
of  the  small  colleges  which  now  exist  in  all  our 
states.  The  great  colleges  are  specializing  their 
instruction.  The  metaphysician,  the  chemist,  the 
physicist  are  permitted  to  confine  themselves  each 
to  his  specialty.  The  result  is  a  kind  of  instruc- 
tion, which  the  small  college  with  its  limited  fac- 
ulty cannot  offer. 

Now  the  operation  of  this  economic  principle 
of  the  division  of  labor  is  just  as  certain  in  its 
course,  as  the  movements  of  the  planets,  or  the 
action  of  gravitation.  No  beating  of  ecclesiastic 
drums  or  chanting  of  litanies  can  check  its  steady 
progress. 

Such  professorial  titles  as  "Professor  of  Mental 
and  Moral  Philosophy,  History  and  Political  Econ- 
omy," "Professor  of  Natural  Sciences,"  "Professor 
of  Mathematics,  Astronomy  and  Civil  Engineering," 
are   simplj'  ridiculous  in   this   day. 

Next,  organization,  uniform,  comprehensive, 
inspiring,  will  be  possible.  It  needs  no  prophet 
to  foresee  that  the  American  state  will  at  no 
distant  day  organize  her  education  as  other  civ- 
ilized nations  have  done,  forming  the  progressive 
stages  of  schools  into  a  complete  and  harmonious 
organism,  offering  to  the  people  a  free  course  of 
school    privileges,    beginning    from    the    kinder- 


1/4  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

garten  and  ending  in  the  university.  Into  this 
system  the  existing  private  and  denominational 
institutions  will  make  haste  at  length  to  enter, 
for  I  trust  that  system  will  be  broad  enough  and 
catholic  enough  and  elastic  enough  to  embrace 
and  employ  all  the  benefactions  of  the  pious  and 
all  the  labors  of  the  devotee.  As  indicating  even 
now  the  tendency  of  private  institutions  to  take 
on  a  public  character,  it  is  curious  to  note  the 
assumption  by  some  most  respected  denomina- 
tional colleges  of  municipal  titles :  for  instance 
— the  Universities  of  Chicago,  Rochester,  Syra- 
cuse, Boston  University,  etc.  Institutions  which 
are  to  depend  on  public  schools  for  recruits,  must 
inevitably  become  themselves  public,  and  will  at 
length  be  glad  to  become  so. 

Doubtless  the  motive  for  assuming  such  titles 
was  in  part  to  invite  local  support  on  the  under- 
standing that  the  institutions  would  not  be  offen- 
sively sectarian.  There  is,  however,  a  trace  of  dis- 
honesty   about   it. 

The  public  school  of  whatever  grade  is  demo- 
cratic, in  the  good  sense  of  that  term.  When  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  governors  and  senators 
and  carpenters  and  saloon  keepers  and  so  on, 
sit  side  by  side  and  compete  in  the  same  classes, 
we  need  not  fear  any  dangerous  outbreaks  of 
the  spirit  of  caste.  The  public  schools  may  do 
more  to  break  down   aristocracies  of  birth   and 


SECULARIZATION    OF   EDUCATION       175 

wealth,  than  any  amount  of  preaching  could  do 
without  their  aid.      Those   who  are  to  live  and 
move  among  the  people  obtain  then  best  prepara- 
tion in  the  schools  of  the  people  whether  higher 
or  lower.     The  public  schools  by  ignoring  sec- 
tarianism are  doing  the  greatest  possible  service 
to  pure  and  genuine  Christianity.     There  can  bo 
no   doubt    that    the    great    and    general    liberali- 
zation of  the  past  generation  has  been  largely  due 
to  the  public  schools   in   which  all  kinds  of  re- 
ligion have  been  tolerated.     The  Protestant  has 
learned  that  the  Catholic  does  not  carry  on  his 
brow    the    mark    of    the    beast.      Presbyterians, 
Methodists,     Episcopalians,     Congregationalists, 
have  found  that  they  do  not  need  to  regard  one 
another  as  a  better  sort  of  infidels.     So  powerful 
is  the  influence  of  the  public  school  in  mingling 
and  unifying  discordant  social   elements,   that   1 
believe  attendance  upon  them  ought  to  be  com- 
pulsory in  all  the  new  states,  into  which  is  now 
pouring    a    tide    of    migration    which    has    not 
been  paralleled  since  the  days  of  Attila  and  The- 
odoric. 

Compulsory  attendance  on  public  schools  does 
not  seem  to  the  writer  at  the  present  time  to  be 
generally  necessarj-.  The  excellent  instruction  of- 
fered in  tliem  without  money  and  without  price, 
will  draw  in  all  children  except  those  of  a  few  zea- 
lots, who  would  contrive  to  evade  a  compulsory 
statute.     However,  a    recent  statute  of    Minnesota   re- 


176  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

quires  every  person  having  control  of  a  child  between 
the  ages  of  eight  and  sixteen  years  to  send  him  to 
some  school  in  which  the  common  English  branches  are 
taught,  under  penalty  of  fine  or  imprisonment. 

The  public  schools  of  whatever  grade  are  best 
calculated  to  develop  good  morals  and  good  char- 
acter. Here  we  reach  disputed  ground.  It  is  no 
longer  sound  theology,  to  found  morality  on  re- 
ligion, but  religion  is  built  on  the  rock  of  moral- 
ity. Every  system  of  practical  morals  involving 
the  theory  that  the  sanction  of  conduct  is  only 
to  be  found  in  the  region  of  faith  has  proved  a 
failure.  The  teaching  that  only  true  believers 
can  be  good  and  do  right,  and  that  nothing  is 
true  or  right  except  as  sanctioned  by  the  com- 
mands of  religion,  can  only  end  in  the  deteriora- 
tion or  destruction  of  character.  Those  persons 
who  have  been  trained  under  a  system  which  per- 
mits escape  from  responsibility  for  conduct  or 
misconduct  through  repentance  or  penances  or 
indulgences,  are  those  whose  powers  of  re- 
sistance to  evil  are  generally  weakest.  It  is  ruin- 
ous to  character,  the  teaching  that  men  have  not 
in  their  own  power  the  control  of  their  motives, 
and  that  punishment  will  not  inexorably  follow 
transgression. 

Education  postulates  the  essential  goodness  of 
human  nature.  It  proposes  to  educe  what  is  in 
him,  not  to  transform  his  nature.       The  public 


SECULARIZATION    OF   EDUCATION       177 

school  assuming  the  essential  goodness  in  human 
nature,  is  in  the  best  position  to  inculcate  a  sound 
morality,  founded  upon  man's  nature  and  devel- 
oped by  experience.  It  can  and  ought  to  instill 
all  the  virtues,  because  of  their  essential  loveli- 
ness, and  adaptedness  to  man's  best  nature  and 
highest  happiness.  It  can  condemn  and  denounce 
vice  because  of  its  essential  ugliness  and  its  dia- 
bolical influence  on  men  and  society.  I  think  it 
a  great  gain  that  under  a  public  school  system 
moral  training  can  be  fully  separated  from  the 
religious  and  sectarian  instruction  of  the  family 
and  the  church.  It  is  a  gain  alike  to  morals  and 
religion.  Yet  I  am  aware  that  this  separation  is 
made  by  many  sincere  and  excellent  persons  the 
very  ground  of  condemnation,  believing  it  to  be 
essential  to  learning  and  religion  alike,  that 
youth  shall  take  equal  doses  of  the  Lord's  prayer 
and  logic,  the  Creed  and  chemistry,  effectual  call- 
ing and  the  binomial  theorem. 

It  needs  to  be  added  that  the  very  fact  that  the 
public  school  is  public  is  advantageous.  Public- 
ity purifies  society,  as  free  air  and  water  wher- 
ever they  can  have  access,  dissolve  and  dissipate 
the  germs  of  disease.  That  it  exists  under  and 
by  virtue  of  the  law  of  the  land,  gives  the  school 
dignity  in  the  eyes  of  the  jnipil  and  the  parent. 
To  live  and  act  under  law  is  of  itself  a  moderat- 
ing, sobering  process.  In  jiroportion  as  public 
law  has  been  actuallv  extended  over  higher  edu- 


178  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

cation,  the  tricks  and  deviltries  of  the  mediaeval 
monastic  school  and  the  university  of  the  earlier 
ages  with  its  special  law,  have  been  eradicated. 
They  will  not  disappear  from  our  state  univer- 
sities into  which  they  were  imported  from  in- 
stitutions arrogating  the  name  of  Christian,  until 
the  operation  of  the  law  of  the  land  shall  be 
recognized  to  be  the  guardian  of  right  and  the 
sanction  of  conduct.  Living  under  public  law 
inculcates  respect  for  law.  regard  for  order,  pride 
in  city  or  state,  patriotic  devotion  to  country. 

It  is  high  time  that  the  law  of  the  land  become 
operative  on  the  population  of  all  schools  and  uni- 
versities. The  suggestion  of  special  courts  has  been 
made   cm  a   foregoing  page. 

It  may  be  that  I  have  wasted  your  time  in  this 
brief  argument  in  favor  of  public  schools  as  nur- 
series of  morality  and  character,  for  the  late  ad- 
mirable legislation  of  our  own  state  providing  for 
systematic  instruction  in  morals  and  conduct  as- 
sumes the  ground  contended  for.  Already  our 
normal  schools  are  organizing  this  new  depart- 
ment of  work  in  order  to  fit  their  pupils  to  carry 
its  methods  and  results  into  the  common  schools. 
I  believe  this  to  be  the  beginning  of  a  great  move- 
ment in  our  state  for  which  future  generations 
will  bless  and  applaud  the  originators. 

There   is    of   course   no   available    gauge    or   meas- 
ure   of    the    effect    of    the    statute    in    improving    the 


SECULARIZATIOX    OF    EDUCATION       179 

morality  of  the  people.  It  is  part  of  a  joint  cause 
whose  operation  cannot  be  separated  out.  As 
concerns  the  required  instruction  in  the  effects  of 
narcotics  and  stinuilanls.  State  Superintendent  John 
W.  Olsen  in  a  letter  of  April  29,  1908,  states  that 
-"the  majority  of  the  teachers  have  been  conscien- 
tious in  complyin.cr  witli  the  spirit  of  this  legisla- 
tion" and  believes  that  the  instruction  given  has 
been  very  beneficial.  It  is  also  his  belief  that 
temperance  instruction  in  the  public  schools  has 
already  established  a  public  sentiment  in  favor  of 
local  option  in  60  to  70  per  cent,  of  the  Minnesota 
counties. 

There  remains  but  one  other  inqtiiry.  Will  the 
church  lose  or  gain  by  relegating  to  the  state  the 
small  corner  of  the  educational  domain  on  which 
she  has  maintained  her  hold? 

In  my  judgment  the  church  rather  loses  than 
gains  by  the  effort  expended  in  founding 
and  perpetuating  colleges  and  academies. 
The  results,  viewed  from  the  denomina- 
tional standpoint,  are  inadequate  to  the  sacrifices. 
The  employment  of  the  college  as  a  part  of  the 
apparatus  of  evangelization  is  not  only  unprofit- 
able, but  I  believe  it  to  be  mischievous,  and  the 
cause  of  a  vast  deal  of  unhappiness  to  many  ear- 
nest souls.  I  solemnly  believe  it  to  be  a  capital 
advantage  of  the  public  university  that  its  stu- 
dents may  there  quietly  pursue  their  studies,  un- 
harrassed  by  the  untimely  importunities  of  pros- 
elyting comrades  or  professors.    But  proselyting. 


i8o  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

I  hasten  to  say,  has  become  so  offensive  that 
many  Christian  colleges  disclaim  it  in  emphatic 
terms  in  their  announcements.  ]\Iy  experience  is 
that  in  the  "godless"  state  universities  you  will 
find  less  wild  speculation  and  fewer  skeptics,  than 
in  the  most  orthodox  and  evangelical  denomina- 
tional colleges.  Young  men  and  women  do  not 
want  to  be,  or  to  be  called,  "infidels,"  but  if  you 
will  draw  a  line  of  separation  between  sheep  and 
goats,  some  will  for  very  recklessness  take  the 
left  hand  road. 

The  church  gains  whenever  through  her 
agency,  society  is  elevated  and  purified,  and  souls 
are  ransomed  and  disenthralled.  She  is  not  and 
cannot  be  self-aggrandizing.  She  is  not  for  her- 
self, but  for  her  work.  She  is  the  agency  of 
Divine  Providence  for  the  performance  of  cer- 
tain high  and  peculiar  services  to  humanity. 
Every  work  which  she  can  relegate  to  other 
agencies  economizes  power  for  her  higher  per- 
manent duty.  The  church  has  in  our  day  thrown 
upon  the  state  the  care  of  the  unfortunate  classes, 
the  deaf,  the  dumb  and  the  blind,  the  insane  and 
the  imbecile,  the  drunkard  and  the  pauper.  Is 
the  church  therefore  short  of  employment  ? 

The  state  has  assumed  the  conduct  of  the  pri- 
mary education,  and  is  rapidly  and  surely  em- 
bracing the  secondary  and  superior  schools.  Will 
the  church's  occupation  be  gone? 

Nearly  1900  years  have  passed  since  our  S.^v- 


SECULARIZATION    OF    EDUCATION       i8i 

iour  gave  his  life  for  us  men  and  our  salvation, 
and  yet  that  great  sacrifice  and  benefit  are  known 
but  to  a  fraction  of  mankind.  In  every  Chris- 
tion  land  the  majority  of  the  people  are  strangers 
to  the  church  door.  Why?  Because  the  church 
from  the  apostolic  days  has  been  constantly  la- 
boring not  so  much  for  souls  as  for  the  formation 
of  powerful  societies,  the  collection  of  vast  es- 
tates, the  maintenance  of  hierarchies,  the  erection 
of  costly  and  magnificent  edifices  and  the  enter- 
tainment therein  of  men  through  scenic  and 
artistic  displays.  Protestant  and  Catholics  alike 
have'  striven  with  prodigious  energy  to  dominate 
and  control  the  state ;  to  create  and  maintain  a 
state  within  the  state. 

"My  Kingdom,"  said  the  Master,  "is  not  of 
the  world."  Christianity  is  only  a  power  as  she 
is  a  moral  power.  Estates,  endowments,  princi- 
palities, dynasties,  colleges,  simply  encumber  and 
enthrall  her. 

Says  Dr.  McCosh,  whom  none  will  suspect  of 
unorthodox  proclivities,  "The  business  of  the 
church  is  to  proclaim  and  enforce  the  doctrine 
and  the  duties  of  the  word  of  God  on  all  who  are 
under  her  influence,  and  then  make  them,  while 
not  slothful  in  business,  to  be  at  the  same  time, 
fervent  in  sj^rit,  serving  the  Lord,  whether  in 
their  farms,  their  factories  or  their  stores.  And 
just  as  little  is  it  the  direct  office  of  a  church  to 
set  up  a  college  to  teach  such  branches  as  mathc- 


i82  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

matics,  and  natural  history,  and  chemistry,  or  to 
plant  schools  for  teaching  penmanship  and  arith- 
metic. This  is  not  one  of  the  injunctions  laid  on 
the  church  in  the  Word  of  God :  this  is  not  one 
of  the  powers  which  Christ  has  committed  to  her. 
Of  this  I  am  sure,  that  a  church,  a  church  court, 
a  general  assembly,  a  presbytery,  is  not  the  fittest 
body  for  conducting  a  factory  or  an  infirmary. 
The  history  of  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland 
confirms  this.  The  churches  in  those  countries 
were  never  good  managers  of  general  educational 
institutions,  and  the  people  are  now  proceeding 
to  take  these  out  of  the  hands  of  the  churches. 
I  have  not  the  least  fear  that  religion  will  suffer 
in  consequence.  The  truth  is  that  the  colleges, 
such  as  Oxford,  Cambridge,  Dublin  and  Edin- 
burgh, under  the  churches,  did  not  promote  the 
cause  of  religion  to  any  extent,  and  for  ages  past 
the  parochial  schools  of  Scotland  have  not  been 
in  any  special  sense  seminaries  of  religion." 

The  church,  then,  will  gain  by  abandoning 
fields  in  which  she  has  no  longer  a  call  to  work. 
Liberated  from  a  labor  once  incumbent  on  her 
she  may  now  throw  her  unincumbered  force  in- 
to her  proper  work,  the  evangelization  of  man- 
kind, the  leavening  of  all  society  with  that  true 
leaven  which  alone  can  transform  or  rather  re- 
form mankind  in  the  image  of  the  Creator.  The 
market  needs  to  be  purified,  but  the  church  will 
not  open  a  produce  or  bullion  exchange.     Edu- 


SECULARIZATIOX    OF    EDUCATION       183 

cation  must  be  infused  and  consecrated  with  the 
spirit  of  the  great  teacher,  but  the  church  need 
not  keep  the  keys  of  the  schoolroom.  Under  her 
mild,  serene,  but  omnipotent  moral  supervision, 
all  enterprises,  all  functions  and  relationships  of 
men  will  be  sanctified.  Influence,  not  power  is 
the  panoply  of  the  church. 

Let  it  be  finally  agreed  that  as  the  church  has 
abandoned  all  grand  and  systematic  charity,  as 
she  has  given  up  the  schooling  of  the  people,  so 
she  must  by  the  same  inexorable  logic  of  events 
be  forced  to  resign  the  higher  education  of  the 
leaders  of  the  people.  The  people,  thanks  to  the 
church  and  to  churchmen,  have  at  length  been 
brought  to  the  point  at  which  they  resolve  to 
educate  themselves. 

This  is  the  crowning  summit  of  that  true 
democracy  prescribed  by  the  founder  of  our 
religion,  the  brotherhood  of  man.  Its  near  ap- 
proach is  just  as  sure  as  the  return  of  the  earth 
to  the  zero  of  its  orbit. 

Shall  we  not  further  and  finally  agree  that  this 
process  is  beneficent  and  its  culmination  to  be  de- 
voutly expected?  Shall  not  the  sons  of  God 
rejoice,  and  the  circling  stars  chant  a  thanksgiv- 
ing that  the  visible  company  of  all  faithful  people 
called  the  church,  is  at  length  emancipated  from 
all  huckstering,  police  duty  and  pedagogy? 


IV.    THE  CIVIC  EDUCATION 

The  speaker  had  resigned  the  presidenc}-  of 
the  University  of  Minnesota  in  l*>l)ruary,  1883,  and 
was  at  the  same  time  elected  professor  of  political 
science.  It  was  the  expectation  that  his  succes- 
sor would  be  selected  in  time  to  assume  his  duties 
at  the  beginning  of  the  following  college  year.  The 
regents  did  not,  however,  succeed  in  filling  the 
vacancy  by  that  time,  and  at  their  request  Mr.  Fol- 
well  remained  in  office  an  additional  year,  it  was 
his  hope  and  ambition  to  build  up  a  strong  depart- 
ment of  political  science,  and  he  took  advantage  of 
the  occasion  for  a  baccalaureate  address  to  formu- 
late and  express  his  views  on  the  "Civic  Education." 
The  following  is  a  reprint  from  the  Minneapolis 
Tribune  of  May  28,    1884. 

To  the  candidates  for  gradttation  I  beg  to  offer 
a  word  of  explanation.  You  might  with  reason 
expect  me  on  this  occasion  to  speak  of  things  of 
the  past  and  to  sum  up  the  work  and  experience 
of  the  years  we  have  spent  together  in  this  place 
of  study.  This  task,  happily  for  my  own  feelings, 
I  am  able  to  devolve  upon  your  valedictorian, 
leaving  him  to  speak  our  novissima  verba. 

It  is  the  immemorial  tradition  that  the  bacca- 
kiurcate  degree  is  a  first  or  minor  degree.  By  it 
the  apprentice  is  admitted  as  a  journeyman  stu- 
dent to  the  guild  of  scholars,  to  be  at  length 


i86  UNIVERSITY    ADDRESSES 

further  promoted  to  the  full  rank  of  master  or 
doctor.     It  is  rather  the  opening  than  the  closing 
of  the  course.    1  am  well  aware  that  in  later  times 
and  in   our   country  but    few   scholars   continue 
their  studies  according  to  ancient  custom,  within 
the  precincts  of  the  university.     Still  the  time- 
honored  doctrine   has   never  departed   from   the 
minds  of  college  instructors.     No  college  execu- 
tive ever  fails  at  some  time  to  say  to  candidates 
as  I  now,  on  behalf  of  my  respected  colleagues, 
say  to  you :  "Up  to  this  time  you  have  been  learn- 
ing the  use  of  your  tools.     Your  proper  work  as 
scholars  now  begins.     The  commencement  cere- 
monial signalizes  your  admission  to  citizenship  in 
the  republic  of  letters.     You  face  a  rising,  not  a 
setting   sun."      For   this    reason    I    think   myself 
justified  in  asking  you  to  join  me  in  a  discussion 
of  vast  moment  in  that  field  which  you  are  just 
entering.   As  beneficiaries  of  a  public  endowment 
for  higher  education  you  cannot   be  indififerent 
to  any  subject  which  concerns  either  that  educa- 
tion or  that  public  which  has  endowed  it.  I  there- 
fore propose  to  you  as  a  theme  for  discussion  on 
this  occasion  "The  Civic  Education"  as  a  part  of 
the  higher  education.     I  trust,  dear  friends,  that 
you  will  none  the  less  receive  with  patience  what 
I  have  to  say  as  addressed  to  yourselves,  because 
it  so  chances  my  paper  will  incidentally  serve  all 
the  purposes  of  an  inaugural  address  upon  as- 
suming the  duties  of  the  department  of  political 


THE   CIVIC    EDUCATION  187 

science  in  our  university,  to  which  1  hope  to  de- 
vote an  ahiiost  undivided  attention.  It  is  a  rare 
occasion  that  enables  one  to  combine  valedictory 
and  salutatory  in  the  same  address. 

The  passage  of  the  Civil   Service   reform  act 
by   the    forty-seventh   Congress   astonished    and, 
in  spite  of  the  gravity  of  the  measure,  amused  the 
country.        Convinced  that   the   people    were   re- 
solved, our  national  solons   disposed  of  the  bill 
with  the  promptness  of  a  boy  who,  seeing  no  way 
of  escape  from  the  doctor's  orders,  swallows  his 
dose  precipitately,  feeling  that  it  "were  well  done 
if  'twere  done  quickly."     Besides,  there  was  the 
conspicuous  incongruity  that  in  the  ranks  of  the 
great  party  of  moral  ideas  and  reform  no  cham- 
pion could  be  found  for  the  great  reform  of  all ; 
which,  therefore,  had  to  accept  the  hospitality  of 
that   other   great  party  whose   motto   had   some 
time  been,  "To  the  victors  belong  the  spoils." 

It  was  a  full  generation  from  the  adoption  of 
the  constitution  to  the  time  when  the  infamous 
doctrine  that  public  offices  are  proper  rewards 
for  political  services,  went  into  practical  effect. 
I-'rom  that  time  the  tyranny  of  the  majority  has 
been  established  and  maintained,  and  govern- 
ment by  the  people  has  been  supplanted  by  gov- 
ernment by  party.  Except  as  far  as  influence 
extends,  the  outvoted  minorities  might  as  well 
have  been  disfranchised.  Our  national  elections 
have  become  tremendous  contests  of  one  political 


i88  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

army  against  another  for  the  possession  of  the 
pubHc  treasury,  the  armed  force  of  the  country 
and  all  other  instruments  of  government. 

Happy  is  it  for  our  nation  that  the  tyranny  did 
not  seize  upon  the  Government  in  its  infancy,  and 
that  under  the  guidance  of  a  body  of  trained  and 
experienced  statesmen  our  legislatures  and  our  ex- 
ecutive and  judicial  administrations  were  organ- 
ized.    There  is  no  present  occasion  for  describing 
in  detail  the  operation  of  the  spoils  system  as  it 
has  existed   from  Jackson's  first  administration. 
We  are  chiefly  concerned  with  the   fact  that  by 
the  passage  of  the  civil  service  reform  act,  the 
doom  of  that  system  has  been  spoken.     The  law 
has  gone  quietly  into  effect  and  with  great  wis- 
dom its  operation  has  been  confined  to  a  limited 
range   of   offices.      Of   the    110,000   positions    in 
the  United  States  civil  service  only  14,000  have 
been   brought   under  the   operation   of   the    law. 
The  first  report  of  the  Civil  Service  Commission 
I  think  to  be  the  most  important  public  docu- 
ment of  the  age,  as  proving  the  feasibility  of  the 
law,  and  showing  how  it  may  be  extended  to  all 
the  ministerial  offices  in  the  service.     Hereafter 
we  shall  hear  no  machine  politicians  proclaiming 
that    it    will    not    work.        It    does    work    and 
works   well.        Some   states   have   taken   up   the 
good  cause  and  others  will  follow.     Let  it  take  a 
generation  or  more  to  fully  develop  the  details  of 
this  reform ;  it  is  glorious  for  men  of  our  day 


THE   CIVIC    EDUCATION  189 

to  have  established  its  principle.  The  civil  service 
act  means  that  by  and  by  no  majority  shall  have 
the  right  or  the  power  to  seat  its  bosses  and  whip- 
pers  in  the  public  offices.  It  means  that  no  party 
in  power  shall  organize  the  hundred  thousand 
public  servants  into  solid  battalions  for  political 
campaigns.  It  means  that  no  political  party  shall 
have  the  right  or  the  opportunity  of  depriving  the 
people  of  the  services  of  capable  and  experienced 
servants.  It  means,  country  and  people  before 
party  and  spoils.  The  principle  will  be  extended 
to  our  public  education,  and  will  result  in  perma- 
nent employment  for  competent  teachers,  who 
will  then  and  not  sooner,  form  a  profession. 
The  just  principle  of  this  reform — that  only  those 
>hall  do  things  who  know  how  to  do  them — will 
at  length  be  carried  over  from  the  administrative 
functions  of  government  to  directive  and  legis- 
lative functions.  If  it  shall  be  settled  that  only 
those  who  know  how  shall  execute  laws,  it  will  be 
demanded  that  only  those  who  know  how  shall 
make  laws ;  and  the  people  will  not  suffer  a  politi- 
cal party  to  drive  from  their  service  in  legislative 
halls  their  most  capable  law  makers,  siniplv  be- 
cause they  have  been  there  long  enough,  in  the 
estimation  of  i)arty  wheel  horses  waiting  for  their 
places. 

An  ultimate  result  of  the  civil  service  reform — 
and  all  I  have  said  up  to  this  point  has  for  its  pur- 
pose to  emphasize  the  statement  I  am  now  mak- 


I90  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

ing — an  ultimate  result  of  civil  service  reform 
must  be  the  opening  in  our  country  of  a 
legitimate  political  career  for  young  men. 
That  time  may  not  be  so  far  away  as 
many  of  us  now  feel  it  is.  Reforms  in 
modern  time  move  with  an  immense  momentum. 
Certainly  the  result  I  mention  will  appear,  for 
it  cannot  be  possible  that  in  America — free,  en- 
lightened, Christian — we  shall  not  attain  to  a 
system  which  China,  heathen  and  despotic,  has 
enjoyed  for  centuries.  When  the  public  offices 
shall  be  open  as  a  fact  and  not  as  a  theory,  to 
the  competition  of  all  aspiring  youth,  the  coun- 
try may,  by  a  wise  selection  of  the  best,  form 
for  herself  a  true  aristocracy — a  government  of 
the  best.  When  no  accident  of  birth  or  wealth 
or  political  connection  can  insure  political  em- 
ployment, young  men  may  honorably  aspire  to 
obtain  it  by  proving  their  merit. 

The  report  I  have  already  referred  to  shows  the 
operation  of  this  principle  already.  It  is  rather  a 
damage  to  a  candidate  to  be  recommended  to  the 
civil  service  examiners  by  a  congressman.  It  is  at 
this  point  that  we  meet  an  objection  constantly 
brought  forward  by  opposers  of  the  reform, 
who  say :  "Your  body  of  permanent  office  hold- 
ers will  soon  become  a  clique  or  caste  of  narrow, 
supercilious,  mechanical  snobs.  In  place  of  the 
true  aristocracy  you  promise,  you  will  give  the 
people  a  'bureaucracy,'  like  that  which  forms  the 


THE   CIVIC    EDUCATION  191 

inachinery  of  a  Russian  despotism.'"  1  think  the 
danger  of  "bureaucracy"  must  be  achnitted.  It  is 
natural  for  a  body  of  men  retaining  ofifices  for 
long  terms  to  fall  into  the  delusion  that  they  have 
a  kind  of  proprietorship  in  them,  and  the  proper- 
ties intrusted  to  themselves.  Especially  is  this 
true  when  admission  to  the  office  holding  craft 
is  by  grace  of  an  appointing  power,  and  family 
interest  and  political  interest  unite  in  main- 
taining the  caste.  The  old  army  gave  proof 
of  this.  The  new  army,  officered  by  cadets  select- 
ed by  competitive  examinations,  will  not  lose 
in  efficiency,  but  will  gain  by  emancipation  from 
the  snobbery  of  family  and  social  cliques. 

For  a  graphic  and  most  interesting  showing  of 
the  evils  of  "Bureaucracy,"  see  Balzac's  novel  under 
that  title. 

Granting  the  dangers  of  bureaucracy  we  have 
to  inquire  whether  they  will  be  greater  under  a 
reformed  civil  service  than  they  now  are  under 
our  present  deformed  system. 

There  is  a  social  principle  of  vast  energy  and 
far  penetrating  activity,  which  now  demands 
tardy  recognition  in  our  governmental  operations. 
I  mean  the  principle  of  division  of  labor — division 
of  labor,  remitting  each  individual  to  that  em- 
ployment in  w  hich  he  can  be  most  efficient ;  as- 
sorting employments  so  that  to  the  strong  may 
fall    the    heavy    tasks,    to    the    weak   the    lighter 


192  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

ones ;  assorting  abilities  so  that  brains  may  be 
sent  to  the  quarter  deck  and  brawn  to  the  fore- 
castle— division  of  labor  at  once  a  cause,  con- 
comitant and  consequence  of  civilization.  This 
principle  everywhere  acknowledged  to  be  the 
master  power  in  industry  and  commerce — this 
fundamental  economic  postulate — we  have  been 
vainly,  as  will  appear,  endeavoring  to  shut 
out  of  public  affairs.  Plato,  the  Greek,  un- 
derstood this  better  than  we  moderns,  saying  in 
his  Republic :  "We  should  make  it  our  special 
business  to  choose  what  men  and  what  talents 
are  suited  for  the  guardianship  of  a  state." 

The  circumstances  of  our  English  colonists 
naturally  directed  them  toward  primeval  forms  of 
democracy.  The  town-meeting  system  was  ap- 
propriate for  rural  communities,  economically  in- 
dependent, growing  their  own  food,  manufac- 
turing their  own  fabrics,  and  under  congrega- 
tional forms  conducting  their  own  worship.  L'n- 
der  a  system  of  restricted  suffrage,  it  was  the 
general  fact  that  almost  any  elector  could  dis- 
charge the  duties  of  any  office.  All  voters  were 
supposed  to  be  equally  competent  to  make  and 
to  be  officers.  For  several  generations  the  fact 
corresponded  sufficiently  near  to  this  theory — 
the  primeval  theory  of  democracy.  I  need  not 
say  that  time  has  passed.  The  American  farm- 
er no  longer  cobbles  his  shoes  or  wears  his  home- 
spun coat.     The   rural   handicraftsman  has  dis- 


THE  CIVIC   EDUCATION  193 

ai)i)earc{l.  'I'lic  factory  system  has  massed  the 
manufacturing  population  into  urban  centres  and 
associated  them  as  attachments,  ahiiost  automat- 
ic, with  machines.  As  labor  is  now  organized 
and  paid,  the  wage-worker  cannot  leave  his  bench, 
his  lathe  or  his  loom  to  take  part  in  public  aftairs. 
The  words  which  the  son  of  Sirach  spoke  of  the 
husbandman,  the  carpenter,  the  smith  and  the 
potter  twenty-five  centuries  ago,  have  come  true 
again  in  these   latter  days. 

"They  shall  not  be  sought  for  in  ])ublic  council, 
nor  sit  high  in  the  congregation ;  they  shall  not 
sit  in  the  judges"  seat,  nor  understand  the  sen- 
tence of  judgment:  they  shall  not  declare  jus- 
tice and  judgment,  and  they  shall  not  be  found 
where  parables  are  spoken."  —  Ecclesiasticus, 
xxxviii :  33.  To  which  he  adds  (verse  34):' 
"But  they  will  maintain  the  state  of  the  world, 
and  their  desire  is  in  the  work  of  their  craft." 

Employers  in  their  fierce  competition  for  prof- 
its, are  as  unwilling  as  laborers  are  imable  to 
take  their  share  of  public  duty.  The  refusal  of 
business  men  to  take  office,  their  reluctance  to  do 
jury  duty,  and  their  carelessness  about  voting  are 
notorious.  Division  of  labor  still  has  been  work- 
ing with  the  silence  and  unceasing  energy  of 
gravitation  in  politics  as  well  as  out  of  politics. 
While  sending  some  men  to  the  farm  and  others 
to  merchandise,  it  has  set  apart  others  to  fix 
the  primaries,   to   manage   the   caucuses,   and   to 


194  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

tinker  the  laws.  The  poHtics  of  nation,  state, 
county,  and  town  have  gone  into  the  hands  of 
a  class — a  self-constituted  body  with  its  bosses 
and  workers  and  strikers  as  perfectly  organized 
as  a  modern  army.  Happily  for  our  freedom, 
this  body  is  commonly  divided  into  two  or  more 
contending  hosts :  yet  it  has  happened  that  they 
have  been  in  secret  alliance  in  schemes  of  plunder. 
If  there  are  any  who  do  not  know,  they  ought 
at  once  to  learn,  that  money  is  now  the  one  great 
power  in  politics.  A  great  metropolitan  jour- 
nal has  published  a  systematic  schedule  showing 
the  average  cost  of  obtaining  the  principal  of- 
fices, state  and  national,  to  candidates  and  their 
backers.  It  is  simply  notorious  that  in  the  last 
presidential  contest  money  was  poured  by  the 
millions,  by  both  great  parties  into  the  doubtful 
states.  It  is  an  ominous  fact  that  many  seats  in  the 
United  States  Senate  are  occupied  by  million- 
aires, and  some  fearful  citizens  say,  ''None  others 
need  apply."  It  is  no  secret  that  no  citizen  need 
aspire  to  the  House  of  Representatives  unless 
he  or  his  friends  have  many  thousands  to  spend. 
To  a  plutocracy  then  we  have  come !  Let  those 
who  denounce  civil  service  reform,  for  fear  of 
bureaucracy,  now  take  their  choice.  They  ma}- 
content  themselves  with  the  present  system  of 
bosses  and  strikers  working  the  public  for  spoils, 
or  join  in  the  efifort  for  a  better  one,  under 
which  merit  and   competency  shall  be  the  pass- 


THE   CIVIC    EDUCATION  195 

port  to  office.  The  conclusion  of  this  matter 
now  is,  that  under  the  inevitable  operation  of 
the  principle  of  the  division  of  labor,  there  must 
and  will  be  a  body  of  persons  set  aside  for  pulj- 
lic  functions,  and  choose  we  must  between  a  self- 
constituted  body,  actuated  by  greed  and  ambi- 
tions, and  one  composed  of  men  selected  by  ap- 
propriate tests  for  proven  fitness. 

In  beginning  the  reform  of  our  civil 
service  we  have  made  our  choice,  and  I 
have  too  much  faith  in  the  sound  sense  of  my 
countrymen  to  believe  that  they  will  not  carry  it 
forward.  And  when  at  length  it  shall  be  the  set- 
tled policy  of  our  country,  approved  and  glorified 
by  experience,  I  trust  that  the  name  of  one  man 
now  little  heard  may  be  named  with  honor,  the 
Hon.  Mr.  Jenckes  of  Rhode  Island,  who  almost  a 
generation  ago.  when  the  great  Republican  party 
was  in  unchallenged  control  of  the  Government, 
in  vain  contended  in  Congress  for  the  passage  of 
a  civil  service  reform  bill.  If  I  have  spoken  at 
too  great  length  upon  a  matter  which  is  merely 
introductory  in  this  address,  it  is  because  I  am 
impressed  with  its  vast  moment  and  because 
I  foresee  that  it  will  introduce  a  most  impor- 
tant revolution  into  our  education.  We  have 
agreed  that  to  escape  the  tyranny  of  a  self-con- 
stituted oligarchy  we  shall  at  length,  as  the 
only  and  the  happy  alternative,  entrust  public 
functions  to  a  selected   body  of  trained  experts 


196  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

and  specialists.  For  this  body  there  will  be  need- 
ed a  new  education  as  for  a  learned  profession. 
This  need  is  an  obvious  one ;  already  considerable 
movement  has  been  made  in  response  to  it.  But 
this  education  is  only  part  of  a  greater  one  far 
less  likely  to  be  cared  for.  Under  all  forms  of 
government  and  all  kinds  of  administrations 
eternal  vigilance  is  ever  the  price  of  liberty.  The 
more  we  specialize  in  politics  the  greater  the 
need  of  political  knowledge  in  the  people.  The 
greater  the  powers  and  skill  of  a  body  of  ofificials, 
still  greater  the  need  of  a  large  body  of  men 
learned  in  civil  affairs  out  of  office.  This  is 
simply  saying  that  employers  must  understand 
their  business  as  well  as  employes.  It  will  be  a 
fatal  day  for  liberty  if  ever  the  American  peo- 
ple turn  their  public  affairs  over  to  any  body  of 
men  and  excuse  themselves  from  further  concern 
about  them.  If,  therefore,  the  civil  service  re- 
form shall  be  a  blessing  and  not  a  curse  to  the 
country,  we  must  provide  an  ampler  ciz'ic  educa- 
tion for  the  i^'liolc  people,  as  zvcll  as  for  special 
instruction  of  our  public  seri'ants.  The  schools 
of  the  future  may  or  may  not  teach  less  mathe- 
matics, less  language,  less  natural  science,  but 
they  must  teach  something  about  the  admini- 
stration of  public  aft'airs,  about  the  great  polit- 
ical questions  of  suffrage  and  citizenship,  taxa- 
tion  and  public   education,  and  about  the  great 


THE   CIVIC   EDUCATION  I97 

economic   doctrines    of   population,    rent,    wages, 
profits,  value,  money,  and  credits. 

An  inquiry  into  knowledge  of  public  afifairs  pos- 
sessed by  first  year  students  in  a  large  number  of 
our  American  colleges  and  universities,  by  Profes- 
sor William  A.  Schaper  in  1907.  has  disclosed  a 
depth  of  ignorance  beyond  belief. 

All  teachers — and  I  include  the  clergy  and  the 
jotirnalists — must  be  thoroughly   furnished   with 
the   body   of   established    economic   and   political 
truth.    To  a  tremendous  task,  then,  has  the  civil 
service  reform  committed  us — that  is,  to  the  polit- 
ical   and   economic   education   of   a   nation   of   a 
hundred  millions  of  people.     Immense,  however, 
and  important  as  this  work  is,  I  think  it  possible 
to  make  haste  too  quickly  in  it.     I   doubt   if   it 
would  be  wise,   if  practicable,  to  introduce  the 
study    of    political    economy    into    our    common 
schools  in  the  present  condition  of  that  science. 
It  is  only  a  hundred  years  or  a  little  more  since 
the  subject  assumed  a  form  to  which  the  name 
of  science  could  be  given.     There  are  very  few 
topics  upon   which   authorities  are  united.     We 
are   probably   not    ready    to   introduce    the    dog- 
matic teaching  of  political  economy  into  common 
schools. 

There  are  present  indications  that  elementary 
political  economy  will  be  rapidly  introduced  into 
our  western  high  schools. 


198  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

On  the  other  hand,  we  probably  are  ready  to 
introduce  instruction  in  the  organization  of  our 
Government  and  its  administration,  and  in  regard 
to  this  we  ought  to  adopt  the  excellent  method 
now    used    in   teaching   geography — that   of   be- 
ginning with  the  local  and  proceeding  gradually 
to  the  distant  and  foreign.     Our  children  should 
first  of  all  be  taught  the  nature  of  the  town  or 
city   government,    then    that    of    the    county    or 
state,  and  later  that  of  the  nation.     The  exist- 
ing  manuals    of    civil    government    reverse    this 
natural  order  when  they  do  not  wholly   ignore 
all  but  the  United   States   Government.      In  re- 
gard to  social  instruction  I   think  no  better  be- 
.  ginning  can  be  made  than  is  now  made  in  some 
of  our  states  by  the  introduction  of  compulsory 
instruction  upon  the  injurious  effects  of  alcohol- 
ism.   A  generation  of  such  work  will  do  more  to  • 
wipe  out  the  curse  of  drunkenness  and  its  dread 
accompaniments,  misery  and  crime,  than  all  the 
Maine    laws    and    prohibitory    amendments    that 
could  be  passed  in  a  century.     Why  should  we 
not  use  our  schools   for  so  beneficent  a  work? 

For  the  effect  of  the  instruction  given  in  the 
common  schools  of  Minnesota  on  the  use  of  nar- 
cotics and  stimulants  the  reader  will  please  see 
page  178. 

Hitherto  we  have  been  teaching  the  children 
the  things  likely  to  be  useful  to  them  in  the 
shops  and  the  market.  Let  us  begin  to  in- 
struct  them   as   to   the   duties   and   relations   of 


THE   CIVIC   EDUCATION  i99 

home,  and  social  circle,  and  the  ballot  box. 
r.nsiness,  after  all,  forms  but  a  small  part  of 
life  and  that  a  mere  incidental  part.  "Conduct," 
savs  Matthew  Arnold,  •"conduct  forms  three- 
fourths,  if  not  seven-eighths  of  life."  Let  us 
educate  for  life  and  not  for  mere  dicker.  In 
spite  of  the  great  and  distracting  activity  of  a 
political  class,  deceiving  ourselves  as  well  as 
foreigners  into  the  notion  that  wc  are  wholly  en- 
grossed in  public  affairs,  I  think  it  to  be  the 
American  habit  to  underrate  politics  and  govern- 
ment. Nor  is  this  fact  strange.  Few  in  numbers, 
sparsely  occupying  vast  and  fertile  areas,  reaping 
unlimited  harvests  and  trading  to  all  the  ports 
of  both  oceans,  our  farmers,  artisans  and  mer- 
chants have  thought  it  puerile  business  to  be 
assessing  and  collecting  taxes,  adjusting  accounts 
and  tinkering  the  laws.  This  all  the  more,  be- 
cause the  laisses-faire  doctrine  preached  by  the 
English  economists,  who  were  our  early  teachers, 
obtained  and  has  held  so  general  acceptance.  At 
length  we  are  slowly  opening  our  eyes  to  a 
new  order  of  afifairs.  We  are  no  longer  a 
band  of  colonists  hanging  on  the  fringe  of  the 
Atlantic  border.  We  are  no  longer  an  aggrega- 
tion of  rural  democracies,  managing  our  public 
affairs  in  the  town  meeting.  We  are  not  a  mere 
federation  of  states.  We  are  a  great  nation, 
conveniently  subdivided,  but  having  a  central 
power  practically  omnipotent.    Our  population  is 


200  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

gathered  into  and  about  certain  great  cen- 
ters of  industry  and  commerce.  In  these 
great  cities  democracy  is  confessedly  a  failure, 
and  we  find  them  resorting  to  the  State  Govern- 
ments to  impose  upon  themselves  a  government 
v/hich  shall  make  life  and  property  safe.  Under 
the  socialistic  tendencies  of  the  age  we  are  calling 
on  the  Government  to  execute  functions  which 
our  forefathers  left  to  the  operation  of  the  vol- 
untary principle.  We  are  making  of  the  Govern- 
ment a  great  mutual  benefit  and  insurance  institu- 
tion, in  place  of  confining  it  to  the  protection  of 
person  and  property.  We  place  the  whole  in- 
dustries of  the  country  under  the  protection  and 
control  of  the  Government,  and  there  is  not  a 
business  man  from  Boston  to  San  Francisco 
but  breathes  easier  when  Congress  has  adjourned 
v>ithout  disturbing  the  markets  and  demoralizing 
our  vast  enterprises.  Wliat  government  may  do 
then  is  a  matter  of  immediate  and  often  vital 
concern  to  every  citizen.  The  power  to  tax  is 
a  power  to  rob ;  the  power  to  arrest  and  imprison 
is  a  power  to  enslave ;  the  power  to  take  life  is  a 
power  to  commit  judicial  murder.  Certainly  we 
cannot  overestimate  the  civic  education  which 
may  train  citizens  to  perform  their  duties  and  de- 
fend their  rights. 

But  let  us  extend  our  view  beyond  the  ordi- 
nary run  of  things,  beyond  routine  functions  and 
conceded  immunities.     We  are  met  at  once  by  an 


THE   CIVIC   EDUCATION  201 

array  of  political  problems,  tremendous  and  ap- 
palling to  the  trained  publicist,  but  which  every 
American  citizen  will  have  to  pass  upon,  probably 
before  the  generation  to  which  you  belong  shall 
have  left  the  stage.  I  must  pass  with  simple 
mention  the  question  of  legalizing  the  caucus  in 
the  way  of  a  preliminary  election  under  legal 
regulation,  so  that  the  voter's  choice  shall  not 
be  narrowed  down  to  the  brace  of  candidates 
offered  by  the  corner  groceries  and  the  engine 
houses. 

In  i8ij7  the  legislature  of  Minnesota  provided 
for  "primary  elections"  of  party  candidates  for  the 
elective  offices  of  counties  and  large  cities.  The 
effect  has  been  to  greatly  weaken  the  power  of  the 
boss  and  the  machine;  also,  to  give  an  advantage  to 
popular  gentlemen  desiring  office,  without  earning 
nomination  by  party  service.  Aspirants  to  the  of- 
fices mentioned  are,  however,  obliged  to  make  a 
double  campaign;  one,  to  secure  the  nomination, 
the  other,  the  election.  IModest  citizens  who  would 
accept  nominations  tendered  by  a  caucus  or  conven- 
tion, arc  little  disposed  to  make  oath  that  they 
"seek"  the  ofiices.  and  to  devote  themselves  for 
weeks  to  personal  solicitations  for  support  at  the 
"primary."  It  is  specially  distressing  to  see  aspi- 
rants to  judicial  places  peddling  their  cards,  photo- 
graphs, and  other  advertising  devices  on  the  streets. 
The  experiment  has  not  been  long  enough  contin- 
ued to  warrant  a  conclusive  opinion.  The  voters, 
meantime,  arc   content  to   see  the  bosses  unhorsed. 


202  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

We  are  already  wrestling  witli  the  problem  of 
an  election  system  which  may  insure  to  minorities 
a  just  representation,  and  to  the  people  honest  re- 
turns of  an  honest  count  of  honest  ballots.  Is 
it  not  astonishing  that  after  so  many  ages  of 
democracy  mankind  has  yet  to  invent  the  means 
of  getting  the  ultimate  elementary  act — a  tally 
of  the  votes — honestly  done? 

The  election  law  of  Minnesota  provides  for  the 
voluntary  use  of  voting  machines,  and  a  state  com- 
mission has  been  appointed  to  select  from  the  nu- 
merous devices  the  one  they  deem  most  practic- 
able. The  first  voting  machine  was,  as  is  believed, 
the  invention  of  J.  W.  Rhines,  a  citizen  of  Min- 
nesota, who  did  not  perfect  it. 

The  further  extension  of  the  suffrage 
is  a  question  already  upon  us,  and  the  crack  of 
the  door  is  already  open  by  the  entering  wedge  of 
school  suffrage  for  women  in  our  own  state.  The 
same  kind  of  argument  which  persuaded  the 
people  that  women  are  good  voters  for  school 
officers  will  at  length  carry  us  to  the  ground  that 
they  are  good  voters  for  all  kinds  of  officers. 
Without  doubt  we  shall  soon  extend  the  suffrage 
to  its  furthest  possible  limit.  For  one,  I  have 
no  objection  to  extended  sufi'rage,  provided  it  be 
restrained  by  proper  checks  and  guards.  What 
those  shall  be  will  soon  be  a  practical  question. 


THE   CIVIC   EDUCATION  203 

The  only  addition  to  woman  suffrage  up  to  this 
time  in  Minnesuta,  is  that  authorizing  them  to  vote 
for  public  library  ofticers  and  to  hold  office  accord- 
ingly. 

It  ought  always  to  be  understood  that  the  suffrage 
is  a  political  trivilege  and  not  a  right  of  any  species; 
and  as  such,  ought  to  be  exercised  only  by  such  persons 
as  are  generally  capable  and  truly  patriotic.  This 
principle,  if  it  could  be  applied,  would  disfranchise 
many  unworthy  men.  and  might  admit  many  women. 

Of  all  propositions  which  have  so  far  been 
made  none  seem  to  me  so  well  worthy  to  be  en- 
tertained as  that  of  the  establishment  of  a  body 
of  intermediate  electors,  chosen  by  the  people, 
who  shall  be  charged  with  the  selection  of  all 
publics  officers  required  by  the  constitutions  to  be 
elected.  This  plan  is  not  new  in  our  country. 
The  electoral  college  for  the  choice  of  President 
and  A'ice-President  of  the  United  States  was  de- 
signed to  form  a  body  of  electors  who  should 
vote  freely  for  such  candidates  as  they  should 
severally  prefer.  It  needs  not  to  be  said  that  this 
wise  plan  was  early  turned  awry  by  the  operation 
of  party  government. 

The  suggestion  ''or  the  revival  of  the  plan  of  in- 
termediate electors  so  strongly  favored  l)y  many 
wise  publicists,  is  not  likely  to  be  welcomed  in  a 
democracy  in  which  ''manhood  suffrage"  has  been 
once  introduced.  There  is,  as  is  well-known,  at 
present,  a  strong  drift  of  sentiment  in  favor  of  re- 
lieving state  legislators  of  the  duty  of  serving  as 
bodies    of    intermediate    electors    of    United    States 


204  UXIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

senators,  by  an  amendment  of  the  constitution.  So 
difficult  a  task  is  this  that  some  states  are  resorting 
to  experiments  for  placing  their  legislatures  under 
an  extra-constitutional  popular  mandate.  In  a  late 
case  the  unexpected  election  of  a  democratic  sena- 
tor  by   a   republican   legislature   has   taken   place. 

Another  great  question  soon  to  gain  the  at- 
tention of  all  thinking  people,  as  it  already  has 
that  of  the  serious  few,  is  that  of  land  monopoly. 
A  social  arrangement  which  permits  a  fraction 
of  the  population  to  monopolize  the  land  which 
forms  the  standing  room  of  all  the  people  on  this 
planet,  and  permits  those  few  landlords  to  ap- 
propriate from  generation  to  generation  that 
steadily  advancing  increment  of  value  due  to 
population  alone  cannot  long  stand  unchallanged. 
Nor  has  it  so  stood.  The  Code  Napoleon,  re- 
quiring an  absolute  and  equal  division"  of  land 
among  heirs,  is  an  instance  of  one  form  of  solu- 
tion. What  plan  we  shall  adopt  will  demand  the 
highest  social  genius  of  the  next  generation.  No 
question  is  so  vital  in  politics  as  that  of  the  tenure 
and  descent  of  lands.  Any  change  in  them  means 
revolution,  farther  reaching  than  any  changes  in 
the  machinery  of  government.  This  essentially 
socialistic  question  of  land  tenure  cannot  be 
handled  without  involving  others  similar.  If 
to-day  you  ask  the  question,  "Ought  land  to  be 
held  in  severalty?"  to-morrow  you  will  be  asking 
ought  anything  to  be  owned  by  individuals?    Is 


THE   CIVIC   EDUCATION  205 

not  property  robbery,  as  Proudhon  teaches  us? 
German  Socialists  have  already  pronounced  bold- 
ly for  the  government  ownership  of  capital,  in- 
cluding all  manufactories  and  means  of  trans- 
portation. 

The  book  of  Henry  George,  "Progress  and  Pov- 
erty," as  eloquent  as  it  is  misleading,  has  neverthe- 
less had  the  effect  to  awake  many  people  to  the 
truth  tliat  property  in  land  especially  is  a  creation 
of  law,  and  not  a  naked,  sacred  right  antecedent  to 
all  law  as  affirmed  in  the  infamous  Lecompton  con- 
stitution of  Kansas.  The  national  and  state  gov- 
ernments are  being  invoked  to  guard  the  public  in- 
terests in  the  public  domain  and  to  co-operate  with 
private  owners  in  conserving  the  natural  resources 
of  the  country.  The  national  government  is  tardily 
beginning  to  cease  giving  away  to  luckj^  prospectors 
the  mines,  forests,  and  water  powers,  which  are  in 
some   sense   the  heritage  of  all. 

A  considerable  political  party  in  our  own 
country  is  already  making  substantially  the  same 
demands  as  to  factories  and  railroads.  The 
transportation  question,  which  has  already  con- 
vulsed many  states,  will  recur  again  and  again. 
A  nation  which  monopolizes  the  carrying  of  let- 
ters, which  is  soon  to  absorb  the  telegraphic  busi- 
ness and  which  carries  merchandise  of  many 
sorts  to  every  neighborhood  in  the  land,  cannot 
object  on  the  ground  of  principle  from  assuming 
the  direction  if  not  also  the  management  of  all 
transportation. 


2o6  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

In  spile  of  "government  ownership"  planks  in 
party  platforms,  and  corresponding  declarations  of 
prominent  candidates  for  high  places,  the  American 
people  seem  resolved  to  work  out  the  experiment  of 
railroad  regulation  before  assuming  ownership  of 
them. 

Much  encouraging  progress  has  been  made, 
against  the  opposition  of  railroad  proprietors,  re- 
senting interference  with  their  "business"  and  de- 
siring to  be  let  alone.  They  will  not  be  let  alone 
until  they  furnish  transportation  at  reasona.  L-  . 
equal   prices    to   all    passengers   and   shippers. 

Few  are  aware  how  largely  modern  legislation 
is  socialistic  in  principle.  Our  public  school  sys- 
tem, rapidly  extending  to  embrace  all  grades  of 
schooling,  is  essentially  socialistic.  On  the  same 
ground  rest  the  broad  powers  conceded  to  boards 
of  health  and  medical  examiners,  out  of  which  a 
system  of  state  medicine  is  likely  to  grow.  We 
have  another  instaiice  in  the  numerous  experi- 
ments to  regulate  and  suppress  the  liquor  traffiic. 
The  modern  legislature  is  simply  overwhelmed 
with  propositions  to  do  good  by  force  of  law  I 
am  neither  approving  nor  condemning  them  now, 
but  simply  emphasizing  the  prodigious  burdens 
of  the  modern  citizen.  In  any  catalogue  of  live 
questions  that  of  protection  will  have  a 
leading  place,  and  it  is  worthy  of  at- 
tention simply  as  an  instance  of  an  institution 
defended  at  successive  periods  on  different 
grounds.     The  system  of  high  duties  on  foreign 


THE  CIVIC   EDUCATION  207 

goods  imported  was  urged  in  the  early  years  of 
our  present  government  for  the  purpose  of  filling 
up  the  empty  treasury  vaults  of  the  United  States 
which  had  succeeded  to  the  debts  of  the  old  Con- 
federation, but  to  no  corresponding  revenues.  A 
few  years  later  we  find  the  partisans  of  protection 
demanding  its  perpetuation  for  the  nourishment 
of  the  infant  industries  of  the  country.       That 
plea   served   its   purpose   and   gave   way  to   that 
in  vogue  of  late  years,  protection  of  American 
labor    against    the    competition    of    the    pauper 
operatives  of  Europe.  Meantime  a  result  has  sud- 
denly appeared  of  which  no  party  dreamed.  Un- 
der the   active  and  beneficent  operation  of   our 
protection  system,'  old  industries  supported,  new- 
ones  nourished  into  full  life,  labor  generally  well 
rewarded,   the   national   government    finds    itself 
in  possession  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of 
surplus    revenue,   and   this   after   paying  the  in- 
terest on  a  debt  of  $2,000,000,000.     An  Ameri- 
can Congress  is  sorely  puzzled  how  to  dispose  of 
this  unlucky  accumulation.     Is  it  true  that  a  pro- 
tective  system  necessarily   implies   the  power  to 
spend  unlimited  money?     Must  American  labor 
gc   down   in   the  unequal   competition   with   Eu- 
ropean pauperism,  because  the  tax  upon  foreign 
cheap  manufactures  yields  a   revenue  needlessly 
and  unmanageably  excessive?     But  I  am  bring- 
ing  forward  the   protection    question   chiefly   as 
an  illustration  of  the  manner  in  which  great  poli- 


2o8  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

tical  questions  change  their  aspects  and  relations. 
Arguments  which  justify  an  institution  in  one 
age  have  to  give  place  to  new  reasons  in  the  next. 

At  this  time  the  country  is  not  in  danger  from  any 
excess  of  revenue  and  the  advocates  of  high  pro- 
tection do  not  intend  that  it  shall  be.  Unlimit- 
ed money  can  be  spent  in  pensions,  battleships, 
irrigation,  drainage  and  river-deepening  projects,  and 
ambassadorial  hotels.  When  the  time  comes  that 
the  tariff  shall  be  so  much  reduced  as  to  render  it 
necessary  to  resort  to  other  forms  of  national  taxa- 
tion, the  choice  will  call  for  the  greatest  wisdom 
in    finance. 

And  curiously  enough  there  is  a  new  phase  of 
the  protection  question  just  looming  on  the  verge 
of  our  political  horizon.  It  has  been  a  favorite 
method  with  a  respectable  school  of  political  eco- 
nomists to  discuss  labor  and  wages  as  mere  com- 
modities. It  is  a  short  and  simple  way.  So 
much  money  in  bank ;  so  many  days'  work  on  the 
market.  Given  dividend  and  divisor  arith- 
metic fixes  wages.  Who  can  fight  the  multipli- 
cation table?  If  you  workmen  do  not  like  your 
v^/ages,  some  of  you  can  clear  out.  What  busi- 
ness have  so  many  of  you  on  the  planet  any- 
how? Within  a  year  or  so  the  labor  union  men 
have  caught  a  lesson  from  the  wage  fund  the- 
orists. Labor  is  a  commodity.  Good.  Wages 
depend  on  relative  demand  and  supply.  Very 
good.     Then  what  business,  say  the  New  York 


THE   CIVIC   EDUCATION  209 

and  Bufifalo  stevedores  to  dock  owners,  have 
you  to  import  free  of  duty  whole  colonies  of 
Poles  and  Italians  to  underbid  us  in  the  labor 
market?  The  factories  of  New  England  and  the 
iron  works  of  Pennsylvania  are  protected  against 
foreign  competition  by  heav}-  duties  on  imported 
goods,  but  the  operatives  in  both  states  see 
wages  kept  down  by  the  importation  of  solid 
blocks  of  Irish  and  Hungarian  labor.  Already 
they  demand  "protection"  for  the  domestic  article 
of  labor.  And  if  labor  is  merchandise  and  pro- 
tection is  the  right  of  any,  can  it  be  denied  to 
our  ultimate  producers? 

In  the  years  that  have  passed  notable  restrictions 
have  been  placed  on  foreign  immigration.  Under 
treaty  arrangements  Chinese  and  Japanese  laborers 
are  excluded ;  paupers,  criminals  and  anarchists  have 
been  forbidden  to  land  on  our  shores ;  and  corpora- 
tions may  no  longer  import  gangs  of  hands  under 
contract.  Still  the  tide  of  immigration  has  stead- 
ily swollen,  and  the  proportion  coming  from  Latin 
and  Mohammedan  countries  rises.  Since  the  panic 
of  October,  1907,  however,  a  return  tide  of  great 
volume  has  set  in,  carrying  many  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  men  and  women  back  to  their  native 
countries.  This  phenomenon  seems  to  indicate  that 
labor  in  these  times  is  mobile,  flowing  easily  to 
the  places  offering  the  most  favorable  conditions 
of  employment,  and  also,  that  our  country  is  not 
for  the  moment  offering  those  conditions. 

Such  are  some  of  the  social  problems  now 
before  us,   demanding  early  and   rational    solu- 


210  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

tion.  I  fear  most  of  them  will  be  left  to  solve 
themselves  while  we  amuse  ourselves  with  our 
farms  and  our  merchandise.  And  there  is  one 
problem  greater  than  all  these  which  always  con- 
front us :  How  to  preserve  liberty  ?  We  are 
extending  the  powers  of  government  in  the  inter- 
est of  physical  comfort  and  economy.  Are  we 
equally  providing  for  spiritual  freedom,  the  most 
precious  thing  conceivable?  May  not  State 
charity,  and  State  schools,  and  State  medicine, 
and  State  transportation,  and  State  insurance, 
and  State  ownership  of  land,  transform  us  into 
a  set  of  patient,  unimaginative,  human  drones, 
fat  and  well-liking?  When  there  is  universal 
peace  and  comfort  will  anybody  care  for  free- 
dom? "Before  all  things,  liberty,"  was  the  mot- 
to of  Selden — before  all  things,  liberty — and  I 
commend  this  motto  to  the  consideration  of  all 
conscious  and  unconscious  socialists. 

The  question  of  the  balance  of  socialism  and  in- 
dividualism may  be  left  as  it  will  be  left,  to  be  kept 
by  that  state  of  mind  which  exists  and  dominates  in 
any  generation.  Before  the  might  of  that  state  of 
mind  ("spirit  of  the  age,"  we  call  it),  laws,  institu- 
tions and  customs  give  way. 

I  have  said  we  are  a  great  nation.  As  one  of 
the  great  powers  of  the  earth  we  have  come  into 
great  and  responsible  international  relations, 
which   are   rapidly   multiplying.    They   form   the 


THE   CIVIC   EDUCATION  211 

subjects  of  a  special  code  of  laws.  We  have 
ministers  resident  at  all  great  capitals,  and  our 
commercial  interests  arc  watched  by  consuls  sta- 
tioned in  every  considerable  mart.  Questions  of 
extradition,  naturalization,  arbitration,  are  con- 
stantly arising.  The  doctrines  of  privateering, 
blockade,  neutrality,  have  still  to  be  definitely 
settled.  Wisely,  our  nation  keeps  out  of  Euro- 
pean quarrels ;  but  avoid  the  duties  of  comity  and 
of  protection  to  our  citizens  we  cannot.  Mis- 
takes in  home  politics  may  simply  cause  the  loss 
of  wealth ;  blunders  in  international  politics  may 
bring  war. 

America  has  been  forced  to  take  her  place  among 
the  great  powers  of  the  world,  and  she  may  claim 
that  her  amateur  diplomacy  has  deserved  the  re- 
spect of  the  nations.  International  law  has  accord- 
ingly advanced  in  the  estimation  of  her  statesmen 
and  now  has  its  place  in  the  curriculum  of  every  re- 
spectable  university. 

Such  are  some  of  the  problems  and  duties  of 
the  time  in  the  domain  of  politics.  To  dispose 
of  them  we  find  ourselves  in  possession  of  the 
most  complicated  political  machinery  the  world 
has  known.  I  doubt  if  our  political  system  is 
thoroughly  understoood  by  any  of  our  states- 
men, except  the  few  who  have  read  foreign  books 
upon  it.  We  are  indebted  to  a  Frenchman  for 
the  most  convenient  and  philosophical  text-book 
upon  our  political  institutions. 


212  UN-IVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

De  Tocqueville's  book  may  still  claim  the  first 
place  in  importance,  but  those  of  Bryce  and  Ostro- 
gorsky  cannot  be  neglected  by  students  of  our  in- 
stitutions. 

To  most  citizens  the  United  States  Government 
is  a  foreign  power,  so  rarely  does  it  touch  them 
with  a  bare  hand.  What  cities  may  do  and  what 
cotmties,  what  jurisdiction  the  various  courts  of 
justice  have,  and  such  like  questions,  but  few 
citizens  ever  know  except  in  a  few  particulars. 
If  ever  a  people  needed  a  civic  education,  is  it 
not  ourselves?  Virtue  is  indispensable,  it  is 
true,  to  good  government ;  but  virtue  is  not 
enough.  We  must  add  knowledge.  Rational  con- 
duct is  the  fruit  of  principles  well  understood, 
and  facts  exactly  comprehended. 

I  have  expressed  the  opinion  that  it  is  not  now 
practicable  to  introduce  political  and  economic 
instruction  on  any  large  scale  into  lower  schools. 
The  university,  I  stiggest,  is  the  appropriate 
place  for  collecting,  assorting,  and  diffusing  the 
knowledge  essential  to  a  better  civic  education. 
That  is  the  very  function  of  the  imiversity.  It 
is  probably  true  that  great  ideas,  great  inventions, 
great  systems,  or  works  do  not  arise  within  aca- 
demic walls.  It  is  just  as  true  that  the  university 
is  the  conservator  of  them  all.  Genius  is  chary 
of  collegiate  trammels,  preferring  the  freedom 
of  the  garret,  the  workshop,  and  the  studio.  It 
is  the  useful  and  honorable  function  of  the  uni- 


THE   CIVIC    EDUCATION  213 

versity  to  gather  up  the  work  of  a  Copernicus,  a 
Bacon,  a  La  Place,  a  Watt,  a  Morse,  or  an  Edison, 
co-ordinate  and  explain  it  and  hand  it  down  in  the 
form  of  science  to  succeeding  ages.  I  believe 
the  time  has  come  for  the  university  to  under- 
take the  task  of  collecting  and  arranging  the  facts 
and  principles  from  which  we  may  develop  a 
fuller  and  wiser  political  science  than  we  yet 
possess.  We  have  seen  how  great  is  the  need. 
The  time  seems  to  favor  the  attempt.  The  great 
historians  of  our  age  have  unfolded  the  life,  so- 
cial and  public,  of  all  great  nations  of  the  past, 
so  that  we  have  innumerable  examples  of  con- 
duct, policy  and  legislation. 

The  sciences  of  political  economy  and  national 
economy  are  still  in  an  unsettled  condition,  but 
the  study  and  discussion  of  them  has  produced 
a  certain  state  of  mind  of  far  greater  moment 
than  any  of  their  particular  conclusions  can  ever 
be.  These  subjects  cannot  be  considered  except 
on  the  presupposition  that  history — that  has  been, 
and  is  yet  to  be — is  one  mighty  chain,  in  which 
cause  and  effect  are  indissolubly  linked.  As  men 
and  nations  sow,  so  shall  they  also  reap.  It  is 
the  habit  of  our  age  to  look  for  the  causes  of 
economical  and  political  results  among  the  ante- 
cedent phenomena,  and  not  to  eclipses,  the  move- 
ments of  the  powers  of  the  air,  or  the  prayers, 
however  fervent,  of  opposing  hosts  on  the  eve  of 
battle.  Upon  the  basis  of  this  truly  scientific  habit 


214  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

of  mind  have  been  laid  the  foundations  of  a  new 
science  whose  walls  are  just  rising  into  view, 
but  whose  rounded  dome  will  remain  to  be  reared 
by  future  hands.  To  have  drawn  the  ground 
plan  and  sketched  a  superstructure  will  have  been 
glory  enough  for  our  age.  I  speak  of  the  science 
of  sociology,  and  I  think  it  but  justice  to  say  that 
whatever  may  be  the  verdict  of  the  future  as  to 
his  contributions  to  philosophy,  Auguste  Comte's 
fame  as  the  founder  of  this  science  is  secure. 

And  upon  the  same  foundation  with  sociology 
must  be  built  the  included  and  partial  science  of 
politics,  which  till  lately  has  been  but  a  name 
smce  Aristotle's  day:  but  the  writings  of  Woolsey 
and  Bluntschli  have  made  political  science  again 
more  than  a  name.  The  time,  then,  seems 
to  be  ripe  for  the  vmiversity  to  assume  and  or- 
ganize instruction  in  social  and  political  science. 
Some  such  great  function  the  university  must  as- 
sume or  sink  into  a  position  of  unimportance.  She 
will  cease  to  be  honored  whenever  she  ceases  to  be 
concerned  about  the  highest  things.  Neither  the 
pursuit  of  abstract  science,  nor  the  applications  of 
science  in  the  useful  arts  will  keep  the  university 
in  repute,  nor  will  philosophy,  nor  mathematics, 
nor  philology  keep  her  venerable  among  men. 
The  highest  things — the  problems  of  humanity, 
the  conduct  of  states,  the  goyernment  of  cities, 
the  economies  of  communities  and  nations,  the 
establishment  of  peace,  and  above  all  the  educa- 


THE   CIVIC   EDUCATION  215 

tion  of  peoples — these  things  must  be  made  chief 
studies,  or  men  will  look  outside  of  universities 
for  their  guiding  lights. 

With  the  pulpit  and  the  press  teeming  with  dis- 
courses upon  burning  social  problems,  the  uni- 
versity cannot  content  herself  with  teaching 
merely  sines  and  tangents,  the  rules  of  prosody 
and  the  magic  lantern.  No,  the  university  must 
adopt  as  her  motto  those  noble  words  of  an  old 
Roman  poet,  "All  that  concerns  humanity  belongs 
to  me."  I  fear  that  the  American  colleges  have 
not  kept  up  with  the  times,  and  have  given  too 
much  reason  for  young  men  to  conclude  that  the 
best  education  for  public  life  is  to  be  got  in  the 
reporters'  room  of  the  great  newspaper. 

It  is  my  desire  to  establish  the  duty  of  the  uni- 
versity to  become  the  seat  and  teacher  of  social 
and  political  science  at  the  point  of  convergence 
of  these  four  lines  of  argument : 

1.  The  opening  of  a  legitimate  public  career 
to  young  Americans,  as  a  result  of  the  civil  serv- 
ice reform ; 

2.  The  press  of  a  great  variety  of  most  com- 
plicated and  difficult  problems  already  demand- 
ing practical  solution ; 

3.  The  late  development  of  the  science  of  so- 
ciology, and  of  the  scientific  method  in  that  and 
the  included  sciences ; 

4.  The  need  of  the  university  to  be  engaged 


2i6  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

in  the  study  of  the  highest  things,  under  penalty 
of  losing  prestige  and  influence. 

If  you  will  charitably  allow  me  to  assume  this 
ground  as  well  taken,  I  will  go  on  to  consider 
briefly  some  practical  questions  of  detail.     It  is 
much  easier  to  propose  the  introduction  of  new 
studies  into  a  college  course  than  place  them  in. 
It  was  part  of  Solon's  constitution  that  the  pro- 
poser of  a  new  law  should  come  forward  with  a 
halter  round  his  neck,  with  which  to  be  righteous- 
ly hanged  if  his  bill  should  be  rejected.     It  is 
much  the  same  with  him  who  suggests  the  addi- 
tion of  new  studies  to  a  curriculum  already  over- 
crowded.    If  a  new  study  comes  in  an  old  one 
must  make  way  for  it.     Accordingly  it  has  been 
proposed  that  no  attempt  be  made  to  introduce 
sociological  and  political  studies  into  an  under- 
graduate course,   but  to   arrange   courses   to  be 
pursued  by  graduates — post-graduate  courses  so 
called.     There  is  no  speculative  objection  to  this 
plan,  but  there  is  a  serious  practical  objection — 
that  we  cannot  expect  that  any  considerable  num- 
ber of  students  will  be  willing,  and   if  willing, 
able,  to  extend  their  studies  beyond  the  ordinary 
period  of  graduation.    To  put  the  studies  in  ques- 
tion out  of  the  undergraduate  field  is  to  put  them 
out  of  the  university.     These  studies  are  of  the 
greatest  value,  they  are  attractive  to  fascination, 
and  they  are  well  adapted  to  furnish  that  disci- 
pline which  is  a  chief,  if  not  the  chief  end  of  the 


THE   CIVIC   EDUCATION  217 

unclergraduate  work.  The  earlier  years  of  col- 
lege life  beine-  devoted  to  the  completion  of  the 
secondary  education  begun  in  school,  we  must  it 
possible  find  in  the  later  years  a  place  for  our 
courses  in  social  and  political  science.  To  this 
solution  the  three  or  fonr  American  universities 
which  have  organized  this  work  have  come  and  to 
the  same  our  own  university  must  come,  when- 
ever it  shall  be  in  order  to  propose  any  liberal 
and  comprehensive  plan  of  instruction  in  this 
field,  and  there  will  be  here  a  college  of  politi- 
cal SCIENCE,  co-ordinate  with  the  colleges  already 
formed  and  to  be  formed.  Given  our  college  of 
political  and  social  science  what  shall  be  its  w'ork? 

No  College  of  Social  and  Political  Sciences  yet 
exists  in  the  University  of  Minnesota.  The  hope  and 
ambition  of  the  speaker  when  giving  this  address 
has  been  bitterly  disappointed.  There  were  perhaps, 
other  interests,  which  for  a  time  demanded  the  ex- 
penditure of  the  moderate  appropriations  obtain- 
able; but  that  time  long  since  passed.  To  the  rep- 
resentations of  the  speaker  and  liis  colleagues  the 
regents  have  turned  a  deaf  ear.  The  only  assign- 
able reason  for  their  indifference  is  that  they  have 
not  known  what  the  crowning  duty  of  a  state  uni- 
versity is,  that  of  providing  the  "Civic  Education" 
for  the  men  who  are  to  rule  and  control  in  public 
affairs. 

To  his  honored  successor  at  the  head  of  the  de- 
partment of  political  science  the  writer  bequeaths 
the  task  of  converting  an  ignorant  and  prejudiced 
opposition  to  the  full  and  proper  development  of 
that  one   branch    of  studies  which   is   eminently  the 


2i8  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

function   of   a   state   university   supported  by    public 
funds. 

At  the  bottom  of  all  must  rest  a  solid  basis  of 
historical  knowledge,  and  if  that  shall  have  not 
been  laid  down  in  an  earlier  stage  of  the  stu- 
dent's progress  it  must  be  put  there  at  the  be- 
ginning of  that  we  are  speaking  of.  And  it  is  of 
first  importance  that  this  knowledge  be  clear.  It 
is  possible  to  know  history  as  geography,  by 
great  features.  He  who  knows  the  outlines  of 
continents,  the  trend  of  great  mountain  chains, 
the  courses  of  great  rivers,  the  boundaries  of 
great  states,  and  the  situations  of  great  cities, 
knows  geography  in  a  certain  just  sense.  In  a 
like  way  history  may  be  known  by  epochs  and 
great  landmarks.  The  imagination  will  fill  in  de- 
tails. The  history  next  of  our  own  Anglo-Sax- 
on race  should  have  been  made  the  subject  of 
more  extended  and  most  careful  study.  We  are 
English  in  blood,  language,  law,  and  institu- 
tions. Spite  of  some  unmotherly  conduct,  we 
look  to  England  still  as  our  motherland,  and 
join  in  her  laureate's  celebration  of  her  as: 

"A  land  of  settled  government, 
A  land  of  just  and  old  renown. 
Where  freedom  slowly  broadens  down 

From  precedent  to  precedent." 

Assuming  the  possession  of  a  body  of  clear, 
historical  knowledge.  I  think  the  next  thing 
would  be  to  co-order  and  explain  it  by  a  course 


THE   CIVIC    EDUCATION  219 

o\  instruction  in  the  philosc^pii}-  of  history,  for 
which  a  model  has  been  furnished  by  Guizot  not 
Hkely  to  be  surpassed.  These  foundation  timbers 
should  next  be  crossed  with  a  study  of  the  ele- 
ments of  political  economy,  and  the  history  of  that 
science,  and  this  I  would  in  turn  bind  down  with 
a  course  in  the  elements  of  law.  Thus  upon  the 
foundation  of  histor}'  we  should  have  reared  a 
solid  platform  in  alternate  layers  of  the  phi- 
losophy of  history,  political  economy  and  the  ele- 
ments of  law.  These  studies,  at  least,  should  be 
compulsor}^  upon  all  degree  students.  The  ma- 
terials for  our  superstructure  embarrass  by  their 
number  and  magnitude.  They  are  such  branches 
as  these :  history  of  political  ideas  and  institu- 
tions ;  history  of  federal  government ;  history  and 
science  of  administration ;  English  constitutional 
history ;  American  constitutional  history ;  politi- 
cal ethics ;  political  economy  in  many  ramifica- 
tions ;  national  economy,  particularly  American 
national  economy,  embracing  a  multitude  of 
topics,  such  as  taxation,  finance,  immigration, 
protection,  banks,  currency,  land  laws,  pauper- 
ism, public  health,  public  education,  sumptuary 
laws,  and  so  on  ;  American  government — federal, 
state,  county,  town  ;  city  government,  its  history, 
its  practice,  ancient  and  modern ;  international 
law  and  the  history  of  diplomacy. 


220  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

It  was  thought  important  at  the  time  to  specifi- 
cally mention  the  leading  subjects  of  study  which 
a  College  of  Social  and  Political  Sciences  should  em- 
brace. They  have  their  places  in  the  detailed  scheme 
of  instruction  in  those  universities  where  they  are 
appreciated. 

This  partial  enumeration  shows  of  itself  that 
no  single  course  could  possibly  include  them  all, 
were  it  extended  over  a  life  time.  Without  doubt 
it  will  be  necessary  to  separate  them  into  suitable 
natural  groups  and  thus  offer  them  to  the  choice 
of  students. 

We  have  viewed  a  magnificent  field  of 
study.  These  are  noble  and  fascinating  sub- 
jects for  the  young  men  of  a  great  and  free 
nation.  Whoever  should  obtain  a  good  degree  in 
such  a  faculty  might  proudly  congratulate  him- 
self ;  and,  yet,  he  might  on  stepping  out  into  life 
find  the  wayfaring  man,  though  a  fool,  to  have 
greatly  the  advantage  over  him.  Whoever, 
equipped  merely  with  a  mass  of  political  knowl- 
edge, goes  forth  into  the  world  expecting  to  find 
facts  and  events  conforming  to  his  fine,  ready- 
made  categories,  will  certainly  find  himself  ridicu- 
lous and  impossible.  The  political  boss  "will 
walk  all  around  him"  and  leave  him  literally  cir- 
cumvented in  his  fine  schemes  of  reform.  Above 
all  knowledges  there  is  a  knowledge  without 
which  they  are  worth  nothing — I  mean  that  in- 
sight into  the  nature  of  things,  and  the  way  to 


THE  CIVIC   EDUCATION  221 

deal  with  them,  which,  in  its  ordinary  manifesta- 
tions, we  caU  "common  sense."  If  our  bachelor 
of  political  science  shall  not  have  learned  the 
true  nature  of  his  subject  and  the  true  method  of 
dealing  with  it,  his  knowledge,  however  great, 
arithmetically  considered,  must  be  marked  with 
a  minus  sign.  The  more  knowledge  a  fool  has, 
the  bigger  fool  he  is.  In  politics,  there  are  no 
principles,  but  maxims ;  no  laws,  but  generaliza- 
tions. Only  the  things  which  have  been  written, 
are  written.  The  Frenchman's  mot,  that  "noth- 
ing is  sure  to  happen  but  the  unforeseen,"  might 
serve  as  a  perennial  warning  to  the  statesman. 
The  election  of  a  certain  clique  of  candidates 
ought,  we  cry,  to  bring  contempt  and  damage, 
but  it  does  not ;  the  passage  of  a  certain  bill  ought 
to  entail  ruin,  but  it  does  not.  The  ways  of 
Providence  are  truly  not  as  our  ways ;  they  dis- 
appoint our  feeble  logic.  In  such  matters  but 
one  method  is  tolerable — that  called  the  historic 
method  which  is  after  all  merely  the  inductive 
method  applied  over  great  spaces  and  epochs. 
To  establish  and  assure  the  student  of  political 
and  economic  science  in  the  historic  method,  he 
should  be  required  to  perform  some  amount  of 
original  work.  It  does  not  matter  much  what  the 
line  of  work  should  be,  whether  the  personal  his- 
tory of  some  family  of  paupers,  a  great  strike  of 
artisans,  the  evolution  of  banking,  the  rise  and 
progress  of  a  granger  movement,  or  the  long  de- 


222  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

velopment  of  a  constitution,  if  by  its  patient  and 
earnest  pursuit  the  student  shall  learn  the  use  of 
his  tools ;  learn  to  investigate  and  record. 
At  least  one  honest  and  successful  piece  of  re- 
search and  analysis  should  be  a  condition  pre- 
cedent to  graduation. 

I  have  dwelt  on  these  details  too  long,  perhaps, 
but  because  a  general  idea  will  not  have  accepta- 
tion unless  shown  to  be  workable  in  at  least  one 
Vv'ay.  I  care  but  little  about  this  or  any  particular 
way,  and  will  heartily  welcome  a  better.  My 
chief  contention  is  that  the  civic  education  be 
recognized ;  things  are  known  by  their  names. 
There  is  no  time  to  be  lost.  The  old  and  simple 
ways  have  passed.  \\"e  have  left  the  agricultu- 
ral stage  of  civilization  for  the  industrial  stage. 
The  farm  is  not  so  much  the  homestead  as  a 
mere  instrument  for  raising  salable  produce. 
Business  is  the  enthusiasm  of  our  age.  We  are 
sixty  millions,  shall  soon  be  a  hundred,  all  virtual 
dwellers  in  cities,  or  on  wheels.  A  new  life,  a  new 
civilization  is  before  and  upon  us.  Wisely  we 
cling  to  old  constitutions  and  economic  customs, 
but  already  we  see  that  the  common  law  brought 
by  our  English  forefathers  from  the  forests  of 
Germany,  the  constitutions  based  on  British  and 
colonial  charters,  and  an  economic  system  bor- 
rowed from  the  free  cities  of  mediaeval  Europe 
are  giving  way  under  the  pressure  and  impetus  of 
the  tremendous  forces  now  in  action. 


THE   CIVIC   EDUCATION  223 

I  beg  my  young  friends  now  leaving  us  not 
vainly  to  fancy  that  the  good  Ship  of  State  is 
sure  to  float  in  quiet  waters  in  their  time — that 
public  afifairs  will  glide  on  in  safe  grooves  ready 
formed  for  them,  so  that  they  have  only  for  their 
parts  to  buy  and  sell  and  get  gain  and  enjoy  the 
repose  of  the  vine  and  the  fig  tree. 

It  is  but  a  few  years  ago  that  I  was  one  of 
srxh  a  company  as  yours,  going  out  from  Alma 
Mater  to  slip,  as  we  thought,  into  peaceful  and 
unregarded  careers  of  mercantile  and  profession- 
al life.  We  had  no  more  expectation  of  the  near 
outbreak  of  a  great  revolution  than  you  have  of 
an  earthquake  on  graduation  day.  Three  short 
years  passed  and  the  great  rebellion  was  upon  us. 
Oh,  it  was  glorious  to  see  the  young  men  of  that 
time  fly  to  the  rescue  of  the  assaulted  nation. 
With  what  magnificent  devotion  they  sprang  to 
the  saddle  and  fell  into  the  ranks,  "marching  to 
their  graves  like  beds,"  at  the  country's  call. 
1  pity  the  men  of  my  years  w'ho  had  no  share  in 
that  contest. 

The  war  drums  long  since  ceased  their  beating, 
and  the  tattered  battle  flags  are  fretting  into  dust, 
but  the  spirit  of  patriotism  which  fired  the  hearts 
oi  the  young  men  of  '61  abides  in  the  hearts  of 
the  young  America  of  to-day.  There  are,  we 
trust,  no  fields  of  fire  and  blood  awaiting  you, 
but  there  are  high  duties,  tremendous  civil  is- 
sues and  conflicts.    There  will  be  room  and  need 


224  UNIVERSITY   ADDRESSES 

for  self-devotion  and  all  the  glorious  proofs  and 
acts  of  patriotism.  There  are  even  harder  things 
for  men  to  do  than  to  die  in  the  front  of  battle. 
Finally,  I  bid  you  be  of  good  hope,  and  never 
to  despair  of  the  Republic,  however  dark  and 
low  the  clouds  may  hang.  There  must  be  a  vast 
and  splendid  career  for  the  free  men  of  our  race 
who  have  been  planted  in  this  latter  day  upon  this 
wide  and  fertile  continent.  There  must  be  a  rich 
and  glorious  national  career  before  us.  Still,  im- 
mense as  are  the  duties  and  interests  committed 
to  nations  and  to  governments,  immense  as  are 
the  powers  and  influence  of  governments  over 
men,  let  us  not  forget  that  "men  have  a  higher 
destiny  than  states." 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


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